Alfie Evans legal fight returns to Court of Appeal in London

The second most senior family court judge in England and Wales is preparing to analyse the latest stage of the Alfie Evans life-support treatment dispute.

Sir Andrew McFarlane, who in July will become the new president of the Family Division of the High Court, will head a panel of three Court of Appeal judges due to hear arguments about the 23-month-old at a hearing in London on Wednesday afternoon.

Judicial heads announced earlier this week that Sir Andrew, currently Lord Justice McFarlane, would take over from Sir James Munby as the most senior family court judge in England and Wales.

Alfie's parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, who are both in their early 20s and from Liverpool, are appealing against a ruling made by a High Court judge late on Tuesday.

They want to move Alfie from Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool to a hospital in Rome.

Mr Justice Hayden decided, at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in Manchester, that Alfie should not be allowed to travel to Italy.