Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect on the length of care proceedings involving children in England and Wales of the reforms to legal aid since April 2013.

The average time for the disposal of a care or supervision application fell from 42.3 weeks (January to March 2013) to 32.0 weeks (January to March 2014). In the last quarter for which figures are available.Care proceedings timeliness is published and monitored in the Court Statistics Quarterly: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2014.

Legal aid remains available in public family law matters such as care proceedings.