DIVORCING couples will have to go through a three-month "cooling off" period to try to rescue their marriage, under Conservative-backed plans to stem the rise in family breakdowns.
A report commissioned by Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who is now the party's leading social policy adviser, will highlight the "lamentable" failure of governments and the legal system to protect the family since the 1970s.
It will warn that family breakdown costs the taxpayer up to £37 billion a year and recommend an overhaul of the law with the intention of trying to keep couples together and make divorce less quick and easy.
The Centre for Social Justice, Duncan Smith's think tank, will propose measures starting with the establishment of a national network of