Written question asked by Simon Hughes (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 16 September 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 October 2003. It was answered by Baroness Hodge of Barking (Labour) on Monday, 6 October 2003 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Dept for Education and Skills

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 1st September, Official Report, column 719W, on CAFCASS, how many private law cases were unallocated (a) less than 10 weeks and (b) more than 10 weeks before a CAFCASS report is filed at court. - Inc figures.

Answer: Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 1 September 2003, Official Report, column 719W, on CAFCASS, how many private law cases were unallocated (a) less than 10 weeks and (b) more than 10 weeks before a CAFCASS report is filed at court. [131177] Margaret Hodge: CAFCASS's target is that at least 95 per cent. of requests in a month should be allocated 10 weeks before a report is filed at court. A benchmark of 10 weeks is used because this is the timescale required for an officer to complete relevant inquiries and meet the deadline for filing the report with the court. It also enables the service to be flexible when dealing with urgent cases that arise with shorter filing dates. In July 2003, CAFCASS dealt with 3,200 private law cases. Of these, 385 cases were unallocated less than 10 weeks before a report was filed at court. This is 4.7 per cent. of the caseload and achieved the target. 1,236 private law cases were unallocated more than 10 weeks before a report was filed at court.

Secondary information