While Conservative MPs called for a rethink of Parliament's multi-billion pound renovation, Britain's family courts were dealing with their own crisis — one that's affecting real families right now, not theoretical future MPs.

Parental responsibility orders — court interventions when parents can't agree on their children's welfare — jumped from just 5 cases in 2022 to 553 in 2023. That's a staggering 11,060% increase that nobody in Westminster is talking about. (Source: Ministry of Justice, Family Court Statistics -- Family_Court_Tables__Jul-Sep_2024_ -- Table_3)

Think about what this means. Each parental responsibility order represents a family in crisis, children caught between warring parents, and taxpayer money spent on court time that could have been avoided with better early intervention.

The timing is brutal. As politicians squabble over whether to spend £14bn renovating Parliament, the justice system handling Britain's most vulnerable families is overwhelmed. A single family court session costs roughly £1,200 in judicial time alone. With 548 additional cases in just one year, that's an extra £657,600 in court costs — before you count legal aid, social services involvement, and the long-term damage to children.

This isn't just about numbers. When parental responsibility cases spike like this, it signals deeper social problems. Rising divorce rates, economic stress, and reduced access to family mediation services all feed into this surge. Parents who might once have resolved disputes through counselling or community support are instead ending up in courtrooms.

The contrast is stark. Parliament's renovation budget could fund family mediation services for every local authority in England for the next 50 years. Instead, we're seeing a reactive system buckling under pressure while politicians debate the fixtures and fittings of a building that's functioned perfectly well for centuries.

Each of those 553 cases represents a child whose parents couldn't agree on basic decisions about their upbringing — where they live, which school they attend, whether they can travel abroad. These aren't abstract policy debates. These are real kids waiting months for court dates while their lives hang in limbo.

The explosion in parental responsibility orders should be front-page news. It's a canary in the coal mine for family breakdown in modern Britain. Yet while MPs debate parliamentary décor, the courts handling our most sensitive family disputes are drowning in cases that could have been prevented with proper investment in early intervention services.

Maybe it's time politicians spent less time renovating their own workplace and more time fixing the system that's supposed to protect Britain's children.