Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many social service referrals were made to the family courts in each of the last 12 months.

Data on the number of referrals made by local authorities to the family courts is not held.

Information relating to the number of children involved in applications made under Parts IV and V of the Children Act 1989 to the family courts is published by the Ministry of Justice on a quarterly basis. Such applications would routinely be made by a local authority, but the Act provides that applications may also be made by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, or another person authorised by order of the Secretary of State to make an application.

The table below details the latest published statistics on the number of children involved in such applications.

Local authorities may also apply to the family courts for forced marriage protection orders (under the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007) and for female genital mutilation protection orders (under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003). Details of the number of such local authority applications made in the 12 months from July 2019 to June 2020 are included in the table below.

The latest Family Courts Statistics Quarterly publication can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2020