The Ministry of Justice has published statistics on activity in the county, family, magistrates’ and Crown courts of England and Wales. The figures give a summary overview of the volume of cases dealt with by these courts over time, with statistics also broken down for the main types of case involved.
Family cases deal with issues such as parental disputes, child protection cases, divorce and separation, and cases of domestic violence. Volumes of many types of family cases have shown a fairly steady trend in recent years.
Key statistics include:
- There were 30,400 decrees absolute granted for the dissolution of marriage in the third quarter of 2011; a decrease of 1% compared to the third quarter of 2010.
- There were 5,500 domestic violence orders made in the third quarter of 2011; a drop of 14% on the 6,500 in the same period in the previous year. Domestic violence applications decreased 15% to 5,500 in the third quarter of 2011, compared with the corresponding quarter in 2010.
- On matters affecting children, there were 7,700 children involved in public law applications made in the third quarter of 2011, a 28% increase on the same period for 2010.
- There were 30,200 children involved in private law applications made in the third quarter of 2011; a 5% decrease on the third quarter of 2010. The trend in the number of children involved in private law applications has been downward since late 2009.