Family court statistics

The Ministry of Justice has published statistics on the type and volume of cases that were received and processed through the court system of England and Wales in the fourth quarter of 2012 (October to December).

These figures include data on family courts, which hear cases relating to:

• Public law – local authority intervention to protect children;
• Private law – parental disputes concerning the upbringing of children;
• Dissolution of marriages or civil partnerships;
• Ancillary relief – financial provisions for children after divorce or relationship breakdown;
• Domestic violence remedies; and
• Adoption.

With regard to family law cases, the statistics show that:

• The number of children involved in public law applications made by local authorities jumped in 2009 from around 5,000 per quarter to 6,500 per quarter following the publicity surrounding the Baby P case. Since then, this number has increased even further to nearly 7,500 per quarter.
• The average time for the disposal of a care or supervision application in the fourth quarter of 2012 was 45.1 weeks, continuing the drop seen since early 2012.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0.