The vast majority of disputes between parents over contact with children end with fathers having access, contrary to claims by campaign groups, new research shows.

Only one in ten separated or divorced couples end up going to court to fight over contact with children, it found, with most couples managing to agree arrangements themselves. When the intractable 10 per cent reach the family court, judges succeed in securing face-to-face contact in the vast majority of cases, the research, commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, shows.

The study, by the Oxford Centre for Family Law and Policy, looked at the perception that often the parent with whom the child is not living, usually the father, is awarded little or no contact for insubstantial reasons.

Bridget Prentice, the Justice Minister, said: “The wellbeing of children is at the heart of the family justice system. Courts should be the last resort for people involved in contact disputes, as mediation can be quicker and less stressful.”

However, where contact cases did come to court, the child’s welfare was always the paramount consideration, she said. “Clearly in some circumstances, such as where there is poor parenting or even abuse, contact can be very damaging.”

Under the Children and Adoption Act 2006, which is due to be implemented this autumn, courts will have new powers to help parents to overcome barriers to contact and more sanctions to enforce contact orders.

One quarter of the 12 million children in the UK have been involved in a divorce. About 90 per cent will live mainly with one parent, usually the mother. The majority of “contact” applications to courts are by fathers.

Simon Clayton, a father who has fought in the courts for the right to contact and who is a member of the campaigning group Families Need Fathers, said that though contact was welcome, what fathers wanted was the law to be changed to create a presumption – if geography allowed – of “shared care”, unless there were evidence that this would be unsafe.

The study, which looked at a typical sample across courts of 308 applications for contact, of which 77 per cent were made by nonresident parents, usually fathers, found that only 11 per cent of cases went to a contested hearing where the court had to make a ruling.

At the start of contested proceedings, only 28 per cent of nonresident parents had direct contact with their child or children. By the end, more than three quarters had secured an order for contact or agreement for face-to-face contact.

In only 14 per cent of cases was there to be no contact at all.

The study concluded that courts are not biased against nonresidential parents but it accepted that the residential parent - who had care of the child - started from a position of strength. The main obstacle to parents winning contact was usually the “resistance” of the parent with care of the child, not the courts, it said.

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