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Written Question
Probate: Applications
Monday 11th September 2023

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average processing time was for probate applications by the Court and Tribunals Service for each quarter in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022 and the first and second quarter in (e) 2023.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Average waiting times for probate grants, by calendar year and quarter, are available in table 24 of the Family Court Statistics Quarterly which is published on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2023.

The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with significantly higher levels of receipts during January to March 2023. Whilst HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand, the training and upskilling of those new and existing staff has led to applications taking longer in the short term.


Written Question
Property: Probate
Monday 19th December 2022

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the number of properties currently held in the probate process pending resolution of a dispute in a probate matter.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested about the number of properties currently held in the probate process pending resolution is not held centrally.

The attached table shows the number of caveats that have been entered with the Probate Registry since 2017.


Written Question
Probate: Registration
Monday 19th December 2022

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many caveats have been entered with the Probate Registry in each year since 2017.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested about the number of properties currently held in the probate process pending resolution is not held centrally.

The attached table shows the number of caveats that have been entered with the Probate Registry since 2017.


Written Question
Administration of Estates
Monday 19th December 2022

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of changing laws governing estate administration to allow caveats to be put in place which can stop indefinitely (a) a grant of probate or (b) letters of administration from being issued.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Government has no plans to review the law on the administration of estates which provides checks and balances to protect the interests of the different parties in contentious probate disputes. Where parties are unable to reach agreement and a caveat is not withdrawn, there are steps the applicant can take to remove the caveat by recourse to a direction or order of the court. However, a caveat may remain in place if parties take no steps to remove it.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Tribunals
Monday 19th December 2022

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time between registering an appeal and the date of the final hearing in the First-tier Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal was in each of the last 5 years for which data is available.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The judicial aim is that cases should be heard within 22 weeks of the date on which the appeal was registered. This timeframe can include, amongst other things, case management hearings and possible adjournments for further evidence to be obtained.

The average time between registering the appeal and the date of final hearing was:

In 2017 – 22 weeks

In 2018 – 24 weeks

In 2019 – 24 weeks

In 2020 – 23 weeks, and

In 2021 – 22 weeks


Written Question
Child Arrangements Orders: Carers
Thursday 23rd June 2022

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Child Arrangements Orders in which the court ordered that the child live with a kinship carer were made in each of the last five years for which data is available.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Kinship care arrangements are most often made in public family law proceedings, whereas child arrangement orders, to which the question also refers, are mainly made in private family law proceedings.

The following table sets out the number of private law child arrangement orders made, where there is a non-parent applicant (which we have used as a proxy for kinship carer) for the last five years, and the number of children to which those orders relate.

Year

Child arrangement orders made – with non-parent applicant

Children involved in residence orders

2017

2384

5255

2018

2228

5161

2019

2619

5953

2020

1899

4339

2021

1893

4279

Figures for June 2022 are not currently available.

Source: HMCTS Familyman system.

1) Includes orders made in private law (Children Act) cases only. Public law (Children Act) cases have been excluded as it is common for Local Authorities to be recorded as the applicant, and it would not be possible to identify in these cases if residence orders were granted to parents or other family members.

2) From data held centrally it is not possible to identify who the residence order was granted to. The data in the table is based on the applicant(s) recorded in the case.

3) Residence orders have been counted where there were no applicants in the case where the relationship to child was recorded as mother or father, or where there were no applicants where the relationship to child was not recorded.

4) There were approximately 220,000 residence orders granted between 2017 and 2021. Of these, around 2% did not have the relationship to child of the applicant recorded on the case. These have not been included in the figures provided.

5) Some cases may have more than one applicant and more than one order recorded against a case. In these cases it is not possible to link an order to a specific applicant. Applicants are linked via case number.


Written Question
Child Arrangements Orders: Carers
Thursday 23rd June 2022

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children are subject to a Child Arrangements Order in which the court orders that the child live with a kinship carer in England as of 20 June 2022.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Kinship care arrangements are most often made in public family law proceedings, whereas child arrangement orders, to which the question also refers, are mainly made in private family law proceedings.

The following table sets out the number of private law child arrangement orders made, where there is a non-parent applicant (which we have used as a proxy for kinship carer) for the last five years, and the number of children to which those orders relate.

Year

Child arrangement orders made – with non-parent applicant

Children involved in residence orders

2017

2384

5255

2018

2228

5161

2019

2619

5953

2020

1899

4339

2021

1893

4279

Figures for June 2022 are not currently available.

Source: HMCTS Familyman system.

1) Includes orders made in private law (Children Act) cases only. Public law (Children Act) cases have been excluded as it is common for Local Authorities to be recorded as the applicant, and it would not be possible to identify in these cases if residence orders were granted to parents or other family members.

2) From data held centrally it is not possible to identify who the residence order was granted to. The data in the table is based on the applicant(s) recorded in the case.

3) Residence orders have been counted where there were no applicants in the case where the relationship to child was recorded as mother or father, or where there were no applicants where the relationship to child was not recorded.

4) There were approximately 220,000 residence orders granted between 2017 and 2021. Of these, around 2% did not have the relationship to child of the applicant recorded on the case. These have not been included in the figures provided.

5) Some cases may have more than one applicant and more than one order recorded against a case. In these cases it is not possible to link an order to a specific applicant. Applicants are linked via case number.


Written Question
Special Guardianship Orders
Tuesday 21st June 2022

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children are subject to a special guardianship order in England as of 16 June 2022.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Government does not collect figures in relation to how many children are subject to a special guardianship order at any one time.

However, the following table extracted from the publicly available Family Court Statistics Quarterly figures provides details on the number of children involved in orders since 2017 until 2021. These have remained relatively stable over that period.

Source: Family Court Statistics Quarterly: October to December 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Public

5,758

5,920

5,834

5,234

5,858

Private

1,581

1,501

1,543

1,192

1,254

No figures are available for 2022


Written Question
Special Guardianship Orders
Tuesday 21st June 2022

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many special guardianship orders were made in each of the last five years for which data is available.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The following table extracted from the publicly available Family Court Statistics Quarterly figures sets out the number of special guardianship orders made in both public and private law cases for the last five years. These have remained relatively stable over that period.

Source: Family Court Statistics Quarterly: October to December 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Public

3,738

3,865

3,856

3,522

3,822

Private

1,187

1,113

1,167

887

925

Figures for 2022 are not currently available.


Written Question
Administration of Justice: Access
Thursday 18th November 2021

Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2021 to Question 904111 on Administration of Justice: Access, what steps the (a) police and (b) CPS are taking to improve case file quality to help reduce the number of cases that are administratively finalised.

Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

As mentioned previously the Government recognises the importance of the timely delivery of justice and minimising delay is a key priority for the criminal justice system including, reducing the number of administratively finalised cases. The CPS and Police are committed to working closely with partners to ensure early engagement, proactive case management, robust case progression and effective and timely decision making.

In January 2021, the CPS published updated charging guidance, which sets out the agreed position on what needs to be included in a file and has also updated its National File Quality Assessment tool, which will ensure there is consistent data on file quality.

In March 2021, the CPS, NPCC and College of Policing publish a joint National Case Progression Commitment, a joint undertaking that builds on work conducted by all three organisations under the National Disclosure Improvement Plan (NDIP). Getting disclosure right is just one factor in ensuring meaningful, sustained improvement in case progression. Under this commitment they seek to address practical issues which present barriers to effective case progression as well as promoting a change in mindset towards proactive case management and progression.