LETTER:

Family courts

Sir: Jack O'Sullivan ("Fathers are more than breadwinners", 29 July) mentions several government departments which need to take account of fathers in their policy-making. He did not mention the Lord Chancellor's Department which is responsible for the family courts. These courts, inaccessible to the press and public, daily hand down decisions about the care of children after divorce or separation which are based on the idea that children belong to mothers and that the father's role is to pay.

The fault, I should add, is not with the relevant legislation but with the attitudes which govern the judges' interpretation of that legislation.

TIM HIBBETT

Edgware, Middlesex