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Emergency Protection Orders

Volume 448: debated on Wednesday 5 July 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many emergency protection orders have been applied for by each social services local authority in each of the last three years; and how many of those were applied for ex parte; (80567)

(2) how many emergency protection orders were applied for by each local authority in each of the last three years; how many were applied for ex-parte; of the ex-parte orders granted how many of each were granted; and how many were for children (a) under and (b) over the age of one year.

Information on the number of emergency protection order (EPO) applications made by local authorities is not collected by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Information on the number of children starting to be looked after for each social services local authority, as a result of an EPO made by the family courts, during the years ending 31 March 2003, 31 March 2004 and 31 March 2005 are presented in the following table. The DfES does not collect information about the numbers of ex-parte EPO applications.

Children who started to be looked after as a result of an emergency protection order being issued by family courts for the years ending 31 March 2003 to 2005 by legal status on starting1,2,3

Number

2003

2004

2005

England

1,300

1,300

1,400

North East

70

50

60

Shire counties

Durham

20

10

10

Northumberland

0

0

10

Unitary authorities

0

0

0

Darlington

10

0

Hartlepool

5

0

Middlesbrough

0

10

Redcar and Cleveland

10

5

Stockton on Tees

10

15

Metropolitan districts

0

0

0

Gateshead

5

10

Newcastle upon Tyne

0

North Tyneside

South Tyneside

5

Sunderland

0

0

North West

160

170

190

Shire counties

Cheshire

10

Cumbria

0

15

10

Lancashire

20

10

15

Unitary authorities

0

0

0

Blackburn and Darwen

10

10

Blackpool

5

5

Halton

0

Warrington

10

5

Metropolitan districts

0

0

0

Bolton

10

10

5

Bury

0

0

5

Knowsley

0

0

Liverpool

0

10

10

Manchester

35

15

45

Oldham

5

15

10

Rochdale

15

10

Salford

10

10

Sefton

15

St. Helens

0

Stockport

0

10

Tameside

10

10

10

Trafford

10

10

Wigan

10

5

Wirral

15

10

Yorkshire and the Humber

200

180

180

Shire counties

North Yorkshire

5

15

5

Unitary authorities

0

0

0

East Riding Yorkshire

10

5

Kingston upon Hull

10

10

North East Lincolnshire

15

15

10

North Lincolnshire

5

10

York

0

Metropolitan districts

Barnsley

10

10

10

Bradford

25

25

25

Calderdale

10

Doncaster

10

15

Kirklees

10

10

Leeds

65

45

55

Rotherham

15

5

Sheffield

25

10

5

Wakefield

10

15

East Midlands

130

110

90

Shire counties

Derbyshire

25

15

15

Leicestershire

20

15

0

Lincolnshire

10

5

5

Northamptonshire

20

30

35

Nottinghamshire

20

10

10

Unitary authorities

0

0

0

Derby

10

10

10

Leicester

5

10

5

Nottingham

20

10

Rutland

0

0

0

West Midlands

220

160

220

Shire counties

Shropshire

5

10

Staffordshire

10

15

25

Warwickshire

5

10

Worcestershire

25

10

15

Unitary authorities

0

0

0

Herefordshire

5

10

Stoke-On-Trent

30

15

15

Telford and Wrekin

15

10

Metropolitan districts

0

0

0

Birmingham

45

20

55

Coventry

15

15

Dudley

20

15

25

Sandwell

15

20

15

Solihull

0

Walsall

25

20

20

Wolverhampton

5

East of England

80

100

120

Shire counties

Bedfordshire

20

20

5

Cambridgeshire

10

15

Essex

5

15

30

Hertfordshire

10

10

5

Norfolk

10

Suffolk

15

10

10

Unitary authorities

0

0

0

Luton

25

20

15

Peterborough

0

10

Southend

0

20

Thurrock

5

London

250

280

250

Inner London

Camden

5

5

City of London

0

0

0

Greenwich

10

Hackney

10

5

10

Hammersmith and Fulham

5

5

Islington

15

Kensington and Chelsea

0

10

Lambeth

0

15

15

Lewisham

15

10

Southwark

10

25

10

Tower Hamlets

5

5

15

Wandsworth

20

5

10

Westminster

20

15

Outer London

0

0

0

Barking and Dagenham

30

15

10

Barnet

20

5

Bexley

Brent

10

10

Bromley

5

Croydon

10

10

Ealing

0

Enfield

15

10

20

Haringey

20

20

20

Harrow

10

5

Havering

0

Hillingdon

0

10

0

Hounslow

5

15

15

Kingston upon Thames

0

Merton

5

15

Newham

15

10

20

Redbridge

10

0

Richmond upon Thames

10

Sutton

10

Waltham Forest

10

South East

150

140

190

Shire counties

Buckinghamshire

0

5

5

East Sussex

10

10

Hampshire

20

10

25

Kent

15

20

40

Oxfordshire

10

Surrey

15

25

35

West Sussex

10

10

15

Unitary authorities

0

0

0

Bracknell Forest

Brighton and Hove

20

10

Isle of Wight

0

0

Medway Towns

5

25

5

Milton Keynes

15

15

Portsmouth

15

10

5

Reading

0

Slough

0

0

Southampton

10

10

10

West Berkshire

0

0

Windsor and Maidenhead

Wokingham

0

0

South West

90

110

100

Shire counties

Cornwall

15

15

15

Devon

15

15

Dorset

0

Gloucestershire

10

5

5

Isles of Scilly

0

0

0

Somerset

Wiltshire

10

Unitary authorities

0

0

0

Bath and North East Somerset

0

0

Bournemouth

15

10

Bristol

15

25

North Somerset

0

10

Plymouth

5

15

Poole

5

0

South Gloucestershire

10

10

Swindon

Torbay

0

0

5

1 Only the first occasion on which a child started to be looked after in the year has been counted.

2 Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials.

3 To maintain the confidentiality of each individual child, data at national level are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000, to the nearest 10 otherwise. At regional level, the data are rounded to the nearest 10 and at local authority level data are rounded to the nearest 5. Numbers from 1 to 5 inclusive are suppressed and replaced by a hyphen (—). Zero (0) is shown only when the number submitted was zero. As a consequence of our rounding and suppression figures may not sum to the total.

Note:

Figures are taken from the SSDA903 return which since 2003-04 covered all looked after children.