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The table shows the number of care orders applied for in the family courts of England and Wales in each month between November 2008 and September 2009, the last month for which figures have been published.
Statistics on public law applications are published on a quarterly basis by the Ministry of Justice in the statistical bulletin ‘Court Statistics Quarterly’ and annually in the command paper ‘Judicial and Court Statistics’. Statistics for quarter 4 (October to December) of 2009 are due to be published in the next edition of Court Statistics Quarterly in March 2010, and will be available from the Ministry of Justice website at:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/courtstatisticsquarterly.htm.
Month Number of care order applications 2008 November 1,254 December 1,488 2009 January 1,305 February 1,439 March 1,674 April 1,429 May 1,402 June 1,693 July 1,460 August 1,325 September 1,507 Notes: 1. The data are taken from the HMCS FamilyMan system and summary returns. 2. Figures relate to the number of children subject to applications. 3. Figures include applications made in all three tiers of court (County Court, High Court And Family Proceedings Court). 4. Research undertaken by the Ministry of Justice has identified that some cases that have transferred from the Family Proceedings Court to the County Court have been incorrectly recorded as new applications in the County Court, thus inflating the number of new applications (see Masson et al, 2008). Work is in train to improve the accuracy of County Court records. 5. The figures for 2009 are thought to include a degree of double counting of applications initially lodged in a County Court and then transferred to a Family Proceedings Court. This issue is being investigated by Ministry of Justice statisticians, which may lead to the figures being revised in future.