(2) how many child care cases have come to court (a) within a month, (b) between one and three months, (c) between three and six months, (d) between six and 12 months, (e) in over a year and (f) in over 18 months in the last 10 years;
(3) how many care cases involving a child came to court in each of the last five years.
Information on the number of court hearings per child care case is not held centrally.
Table 1 shows the length of time from receipt of application to final order for care cases in England and Wales grouped as requested. The data are presented separately by family proceedings courts and county courts as more complex cases are transferred to the county courts. These data are only available from 2005 for the family proceedings courts and 2003 for the county courts.
Table 2 shows the number of care applications to the courts in England and Wales in each of the last four years. Application data for all jurisdictions prior to 2003 are not available.
2003 2004 2005 2006 Number Percentage Number Percentage Number Percentage Number Percentage Family proceedings courts Within a month — — — — 35 1 16 0 Between one and three months — — — — 52 2 48 1 Between three and six months — — — — 554 16 429 12 Between six and 12 months — — — — 1,953 57 2,074 58 Between one year and 18 months — — — — 567 16 767 22 Over 18 months — — — — 279 8 215 6 Total — — — — 3,440 100 3,549 100 County courts Within a month 16 1 8 0 6 0 6 0 Between one and three months 41 1 43 1 35 1 42 1 Between three and six months 292 10 272 8 281 9 222 8 Between six and 12 months 1,454 48 1,536 48 1,651 53 1,594 54 Between one year and 18 months 764 25 762 24 702 23 687 23 Over 18 months 463 15 585 18 431 14 403 14 Total 3,030 100 3,206 100 3,106 100 2,954 100 Notes: 1. Cases transferred from the family proceedings court to the county court are counted solely in the latter, but are measured from date of initial application to the family proceedings court. 2. Family proceedings court data are measured by child, county court data by case. One case may involve more than one child.
2003 2004 2005 20061 Care applications 11,046 12,099 14,389 13,446 1 Figures for 2006 are provisional and subject to change. Note: Figures relate to the number of children who were the subject of each care application. An application relating to two children will be counted twice.