Recordings in Family Court: When a Recording Helps or Harms

Part of: Your First Family Court Hearing

Recordings in family court can show what happened behind closed doors, but only the judge decides whether to use them. How you made one can also count against you. A secret recording of the other parent or your child raises questions of privacy and welfare before anyone hears it. Recording the hearing itself is different, because without the judge’s permission it is a contempt of court. This guide covers the law in England and Wales. It helps parents facing a first family court hearing, including those who have just discovered a recording of themselves.

Is it illegal to record a conversation in the UK?

Usually not, if you take part in the conversation and keep the recording to yourself. Data protection law does not cover an individual’s purely personal or household activity (UK GDPR, art.2). The Family Justice Council’s guide for parents treats it as a question of privacy and evidence for the judge. The hard lines in England and Wales, however, sit elsewhere.

• Court hearings. Using a recording device in court without leave is a contempt. Recording a hearing you join by phone or video is also a criminal offence, punishable with a fine.
• Publishing. Posting a recording that identifies a child as involved in children proceedings is an offence. Publishing information about children proceedings heard in private can be a contempt of court (Administration of Justice Act 1960, s.12).
• Recording that crosses into harassment. The guidance warns that the court may decide a covert recording of an adult amounts to harassment.

For most parents the real question is narrower: will this recording help me in court, or hurt me?

Can you use recordings as evidence in family court?

Yes, sometimes, but only if the judge allows it. Under the Family Procedure Rules the court decides which issues need evidence, what kind and how it reaches the court. The court can shut out evidence that would otherwise be admissible. So covert recordings get no special pass. The Family Justice Council published guidance in May 2025 after judges began seeing more of them. It also lists what the court will consider.

• Relevance. What does the recording show about the issues the judge actually has to decide?
• Is it complete and unchanged? The court will want to know nobody has edited it, and the parties and the judge may all need access.
• A transcript. Someone may also need to prepare a written version.
• Proportion. Hours of audio make a case longer and dearer, so the court weighs whether the recordings justify that.
• Why you made it. Either way, the court may ask why you made it and how it affected the person you recorded.

The judge may even hold a separate hearing just to decide whether to allow a recording.

How to tell the family court about covert recordings

Raise covert recordings in writing, as early in the case as you can. Do not save one for the hearing itself. The steps below follow the Family Justice Council’s guide for parents.

1. Say that it exists. Tell the court who is on the recording, what it captures and why it is relevant to the case.
2. Keep the original untouched. Be ready to give an unedited version to the court and the other parties if the judge orders it. If you cut a clip from a longer file, expect the obvious question about what you left out.
3. Expect a permission application. The court may ask you to apply for permission to use it on form C2. Our C2 application guide explains that form.
4. Prepare for a transcript. The judge may want a written version of every word.
5. Put your account in writing. The recording supports your evidence and does not replace it. Our guide to writing a statement for the family court covers that part.

Secret recordings of the other parent: what the family court weighs

The court can still accept a recording the other parent did not know about, but it carries a cost. The guidance warns that without a very good reason for recording them, the court might see an invasion of their privacy. It may even decide it amounts to harassment. The court weighs that when it decides about your child, whose welfare comes first (Children Act 1989, s.1).

A parent who records every call and handover for months can find the judge asking about their own behaviour too. Some conduct is also hard to capture on tape. Dated notes kept somewhere safe often record it better, as our page on silent treatment and keeping notes explains. Answering allegations rather than making them? Read our guide to disproving false allegations in the family court before you decide whether a recording belongs in your evidence.

Recordings in family court: should you use yours?

Can I secretly record my child?

You can, but judges rarely welcome it, and it can easily count against the parent who made it. The Family Justice Council says courts generally do not approve of covert recordings of children. Young people told the Council that secret recordings of them invade their privacy. They can feel the adult has broken their trust.

If a parent puts one forward, the court will likely consider its impact on the child. It may also ask whether the child needs to know, and whether they should give evidence about it. Then it asks whether all of that is harmful to the child. Leading questions on tape, or a device tucked into a child's bag before contact, give the court reason to doubt your judgement. Worried about what your child is going through? Tell the court and Cafcass, and let them decide how to hear your child.

Can you record a social worker or Cafcass?

Ask first. The Family Justice Council advises asking a professional's permission and asking to see their organisation's policy on recordings. It notes Cafcass's position that its social workers should be open and transparent. Cafcass also says there is no legal reason why a parent or carer should not record their own interview.

Permission to record is not permission to use the recording in court. Even with a social worker's agreement, the court still decides whether to accept it as evidence. Local authority meetings also have their own practice. Our guides to the child protection conference and preparing for a Cafcass interview cover them.

Can you record a family court hearing?

No. The Contempt of Court Act 1981, s.9, makes it a contempt to use a sound recorder in court without leave. Bringing one in to use counts too, and the court can order the device and the recording forfeited. If your hearing is by phone or video, the rule does not relax because you are at home. Under the Courts Act 2003, s.85B, recording a remote hearing without permission is a criminal offence. That also covers recording anyone who attends remotely. The fine can reach level 3 on the standard scale, and the same conduct is a contempt.

You do not need your own recording to check what people said. The court records its hearings for official transcripts, and you can ask for a transcript on form EX107. If the facts themselves are in dispute, our guide to how the court tests allegations explains how it hears evidence.

Recordings in family court: frequently asked questions

General information about the law in England and Wales, not advice on your circumstances.