The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) has reported a 15 per cent fall in the number of private family law cases last month.
The service received a total of 2,843 private law cases requiring their involvement over January this year – noticeably down from the 3,345 received in January 2014.
Meanwhile, the total number of private law cases received in the year to last March stood at 45,605 the report continues, a two per cent rise on the previous year. The first six months of 2013-14 were especially busy, all 15 per cent up on the previous year. Private law demand between April and September ran at record levels, before subsequently dropping. The numbers of cases received each month from October onwards were each lower than in the same month the previous year
Private law concerns disputes between individuals, such as family members, as opposed to ‘public’ cases which involve the government, principally those concerning adoption and fostering. Cafcass works to represent the interests of children caught up in both private and public family cases.
Have you ever noticed that these statistics apply to England only?
The CEO of Cafcass Cymru Gillian Baranski has refused to publish this data on an equivalent basis to England. They accept that they have the data within the same time frame as Cafcass but they believe that publication in their Annual Report is sufficient. This means that the data for April 2014 will not be available to the public until December 2015.
I’m meeting the Minister next week and I’ve asked him to overrule the officials and ensure publication.
Paul