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Figures on the number of applications by grandparents for Section X Private Law residence orders in county and High Courts in England and Wales are given in the following table. Public law applications (few in number) are not included, figures for family proceedings courts, where around 15 per cent. of applications are made, are also not provided as comprehensive information on applicant relationships is not available. Please note that the figures for 2008 are provisional and remain subject to change.
Around 5 per cent. of applications have more than one applicant to child relationship specified. This could happen for a number of reasons. It could be that the applicant has a different relationship with each of the children in the case, that the application is made by more than one person or there may be counter applications made by two or more people. The table shows the total number of applications where any of the applicant-to-child relationships was specified as “grandparent”, even if other such relationships existed in connection with the same case.
2006 2007 2008 Total applications 32,382 32,940 35,501 Total applicant to child relationships 33,956 34,681 37,227 Total applications by grandparents 3,194 3,464 3,893 Notes: 1. The figures include transfers from other courts. 2. Included in the figures are applications made in 2 different months. This may be because the case was transferred or because a second applicant made a counter application in a later month. Where this occurs the application will be counted twice in the total.