30. Schedules of issues

What does “issue” mean in a Family Court case?

An issue is a question which the court needs to resolve in order to decide the application or manage the proceedings.

It may be:

• a factual issue;
• a safeguarding or risk issue;
• a welfare issue;
• a procedural issue;
• an evidential issue;
• or a question about the order or direction which should be made.

A disagreement is not automatically an issue

Parents may disagree about hundreds of things.

The court does not necessarily have to determine all of them.

Ask:

If the judge answered this question one way or the other, would it affect the legal, safeguarding, welfare or procedural decision before the court?

If not, it may not belong in the formal issue list.

Current hearing versus final hearing

PD27A requires the formal issue document to identify:

• the issue or issues to be determined at the present hearing; and
• the issue or issues which ultimately require determination at final hearing.

Building a useful issues schedule

Start with the legal and procedural architecture of the case rather than with a list of complaints.

Step 1: identify the application

Ask what is actually before the court.

For example:

• C100 application for a Child Arrangements Order;
• C2 application to vary an existing order;
• C79 enforcement application;
• application for a Prohibited Steps Order;
• Specific Issue Order application;
• or another application properly before the court.

Step 2: identify what has already been decided

Read the latest order and any relevant judgment.

Remove questions which have already been:

• determined;
• admitted;
• agreed;
• withdrawn;
• or rendered irrelevant by a later order.

Step 3: separate the current hearing from the whole case

Step 4: keep the formal document short

Under PD27A, the default maximum length of the statement of issues is 2 pages.

That is a strong signal that the formal document should contain the questions, not pages of supporting argument underneath each question.

A working schedule can be more detailed

During preparation, it can be useful to create a fuller analytical table:

That fuller schedule may assist preparation, negotiation and drafting.

The filed PD27A statement of issues can then be distilled from it.

Statement of issues, allegations table, chronology and position statement are different documents

Avoid framing the issue so that it assumes the answer

Less useful:

“Father's deliberate campaign to alienate the children.”

That is an assertion, not a neutral issue.

Depending on the case, the issue may instead be:

“What explains the deterioration in the children's relationship with Mother and what, if any, welfare intervention is required?”

Avoid “issue inflation”

Ten allegations do not necessarily create ten separate welfare issues.

Fifty disputed messages do not create fifty legal questions.

Look for the underlying decision:

what factual platform is necessary → what risk follows → what welfare question must then be answered?

Domestic abuse, fact-finding and the 2026 move away from rigid incident lists

The January 2026 amendments to PD12J are important here.

The rules no longer frame the exercise through the traditional term “Scott Schedule”.

Instead, where fact-finding is necessary, paragraph 19 requires the court to consider whether the key facts in dispute can be contained in a schedule or table.

First ask whether fact-finding is necessary

PD12J requires the court to determine whether a fact-finding hearing is necessary and proportionate.

Relevant questions include:

• whether admissions already provide a sufficient factual basis;
• whether other available evidence provides a sufficient factual basis;
• the nature of the disputed allegations;
• whether they would be relevant if proved;
• what evidence is needed to resolve them;
• and whether separate fact-finding is proportionate.

Re H-N: patterns and context

Re H-N and Others (Children) (Domestic Abuse: Finding of Fact Hearings) [2021] EWCA Civ 448 remains important because it emphasises that coercive and controlling behaviour may need to be evaluated as a pattern rather than as a collection of isolated incidents.

The 2026 wording of PD12J now reflects that principle expressly.

The factual-dispute table is not the PD27A statement of issues

This distinction matters.

Findings should ultimately answer the risk and welfare questions

PD12J requires findings of established domestic abuse, where practicable, to address the nature and degree of the abuse and its effect on the child, parents and other relevant persons.

The purpose is not a historical verdict detached from welfare.

The factual exercise should provide a reliable platform for decisions about risk and future arrangements.

Link every issue to the evidence or decision it genuinely requires

An issues schedule becomes especially useful when it prevents unnecessary evidence being ordered.

Section 7 reports

The issue list can help define the scope of a Cafcass or local-authority report.

Rather than requesting:

“a full report on everything”,

identify the welfare questions the report needs to assist with.

PD12J expressly says that any request for a section 7 report in a domestic-abuse case should clearly set out the matters the court considers need to be addressed.

Disclosure

The issue list should also discipline disclosure.

A request for records should be linked to:

• a live issue;
• a relevant source;
• a proportionate date range;
• and a clear explanation of what the material may assist the court to determine.

Experts

The same approach applies before asking for expert evidence.

Define the question first.

Then consider whether the court genuinely requires expert assistance to answer it.

Issues evolve

An issue list is not frozen for the entire proceedings.

As cases progress:

• some issues are resolved;
• findings create a settled factual platform;
• new evidence may create a genuinely new issue;
• interim arrangements may remove an earlier dispute;
• or a professional assessment may narrow what remains.

Who prepares the agreed statement of issues?

Under PD27A, the applicant will usually take the lead in preparing the documents which must be agreed.

However, where the applicant is a litigant in person and another party is represented, the represented party must take the lead.

The JSH Law issues audit

Example formal statement of issues

Detailed working issue matrix

Common mistakes

30-point checklist

Primary sources and official guidance

1. Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles — current 2026 requirements for the agreed statement of issues, two-page limit, agreement, bundle references and preliminary documents.
2. Family Procedure Rules — Part 1 — overriding objective and active case management, including identifying the issues at an early stage and deciding which require full investigation.
3. Family Procedure Rules — Part 4 — court case-management powers, including issue management and directions.
4. Practice Direction 12B — Child Arrangements Programme — private-law children case management, identifying issues and progressing the case towards safe resolution.
5. Practice Direction 12J — Domestic Abuse & Harm — determining whether fact-finding is necessary, identifying key disputed facts and the current approach to schedules or tables of domestic-abuse allegations.
6. Re H-N and Others (Children) [2021] EWCA Civ 448 — pattern, context and proportionality in domestic-abuse fact-finding.
7. Children Act 1989 — section 1 — welfare framework against which substantive children issues ultimately require determination.
8. Judiciary — Preparing Court Bundles for Family Proceedings: Guide for Litigants in Person — practical guidance accompanying the current PD27A regime.