---

Dept for Education and Skills

Answer

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of families involved in separation and divorce cases were referred to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service in (a) 2001-02, (b) 2002-03 and (c) 2003-04. [194218] Margaret Hodge: Such information as is available is in the table. It refers to the total number of private law cases referred to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) and residence and contact applications to the courts (the cases most commonly associated with divorce and separation). _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Number CAFCASS referrals (financial years) 2001-02 17,352 2002-03 34,761 2003-04 33,803 Private law contact and residence applications (calendar years) 2001 92,382 2002 97,323 2003 106,534 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Notes: 1. Family Justice System (FJS) Data obtained from Judicial Statistics 2001-2003, published by the Department for Constitutional Affairs. 2. FJS Statistics are measured by calendar year and CAFCASS statistics are measured by financial year. The two sets of data are not comparable and therefore a proportion cannot be derived. In addition, there is a time lag between application to court and referral to a CAFCASS officer, and there may be more than one application per family. 3. FJS applications are in respect of all tiers of the courts and they show the total number of applications for residence and contact orders, whether or not they are withdrawn or refused.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

194218; 426 c29W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Children CAFCASS Divorce Family courts Parents Separation

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk