Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate his Department has made of the average time for care proceedings cases to be heard in each of the last five years.

Information relating to the time to the first definitive disposal for care proceedings is published by the Ministry of Justice on a quarterly basis. The table below details the latest published statistics on the total number of disposals in care proceedings, the mean and medial disposal duration (in weeks), and the proportion of disposals made within 26 weeks, in each of the last five years.

The number of disposals relates to the number of children subject to a disposal outcome. The following outcomes are considered as disposals for the purposes of these statistics:

• The making of a Care Order, Supervision Order, Residence order or Special Guardianship Order;
• A decision by the court to make no order; and
• The withdrawal of an application.

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