Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of care proceeding cases exceed the 26-week time limit.

Information relating to care proceedings is routinely published by the Ministry of Justice on a quarterly basis and can be found via Family Court Statistics Quarterly.

The Department for Education (DfE) has also invested just under £1.5 million across seven regions, to improve practice in pre-proceedings as a means to reduce court backlogs. We will continue to engage with DfE colleagues to monitor progress and impact on care proceedings.

We have significantly increased funding to improve waiting times in the civil and family courts and tribunals. This includes increasing funding to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) by £8.4 million this financial year - to an overall budget of over £141 million.

In March 2021, we launched a Family Mediation Voucher Scheme for those seeking to resolve private law matters relating to a child. A total of £8.7 million has been allocated to the scheme until the end of 2022,23, and as of 5 March 2023, over 15,300 vouchers have been requested.