Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children (a) under one year old, (b) between one and four years old, (c) between five and nine years old, (d) between 10 and 15 years old and (e) 16 years old or more have been the subject of care order applications in each year since 2008-09.
The table, below, represents the number of children that have been the subject of care order applications in England and Wales by age group, from 2011 – 2015, the latest year for which full data is available. Data on the number of care applications prior to 2011 is not held centrally.
| 1 - 4 years | 5 - 9 years | 10 - 15 years | 16 years or more | Unknown* | |
2011 | 5,767 | 6,148 | 4,499 | 3,531 | 157 | 87 |
2012 | 6,213 | 5,810 | 4,675 | 3,561 | 145 | 39 |
2013 | 5,752 | 5,495 | 4,328 | 3,521 | 180 | 31 |
2014 | 5,422 | 5,495 | 4,824 | 3,920 | 216 | 27 |
2015 | 5,688 | 5,724 | 5,410 | 4,457 | 285 | 27 |
* Unknown represents children whose age is null, this is when the date of birth is not entered or is entered incorrectly on the database.