Children Order Bulletin July to September 2010 (Provisional Figures)

Summary

During July - September 2010:

There were 1,499 applications (Fig 1) entered during the period, of which:
162 = Public
1,337 = Private
There were 1,160 applications dealt with during the period, of which:
111 = Public
1,049 = Private
There were 122 cases transferred during the period with 125 reasons for transfer (Fig 2).
Of the own motion orders made, 14% were in relation to Contact issues.
The majority of interim orders made were in relation to Contact (2,189) and Care (1,231) issues.
Court time spent on Children Order business between July and September 2010:
Total time = 921 hours 37 minutes
Average sitting time = 2 hours 34 minutes
There were 2,582 orders made between July and September 2010.
The average waiting time in weeks from lodgement to disposal for public law cases was 27 weeks.
The average waiting time in weeks between lodgement to disposal for private law cases was 22 weeks.
There were 1,508 children involved in Children Order Proceedings during the period, of which 39% were under the age of five.

Table 1a: Applications entered and disposed

		Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
Private Law	Family Proceedings Court	1254	953
	Family Care Centre	26	51
	High Court	57	45
	Total	1337	1049
Public Law	Family Proceedings Court	157	84
	Family Care Centre	2	19
	High Court	3	8
	Total	162	111

Private law = residence, contact, specific issues, prohibited steps, parental responsibility, financial contribution, guardianship, family assistance, non-molestation and occupation orders

Table 1b: Applications entered and disposed by processing office

		Number of applications entered	Number of disposals	Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
		Public Law		Private Law
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	24	6	107	38
	Armagh	0	0	2	1
	Ballymena	1	5	25	87
	Bangor	0	0	0	0
	Belfast	43	16	369	299
	Coleraine	1	0	14	9
	Craigavon	12	4	87	54
	Downpatrick	0	0	0	0
	Dungannon	29	21	86	65
	Larne	0	0	2	1
	Limavady	0	0	0	1
	Lisburn	7	6	99	65
	Londonderry	12	2	162	126
	Magherafelt	0	0	0	0
	Newry	13	9	139	86
	Newtownards	14	14	162	120
	Omagh	1	1	0	1
	Venue total	157	84	1254	953
Family Care Centre	Belfast	2	11	19	37
	Craigavon	0	7	6	10
	Dungannon	0	0	1	0
	Londonderry	0	1	0	4
	Venue total	2	19	26	51
High Court	Royal Courts of Justice	3	8	57	45
High Court	Venue total	3	8	57	45

Private law = residence, contact, specific issues, prohibited steps, parental responsibility, financial contribution, guardianship, family assistance, non-molestation and occupation orders.

Table 1c: Applications entered and disposed

	Number of applications entered	Number of disposals	Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
	Public Law		Private Law
Northern Ireland	162	111	1337	1049

Table 2: Reasons for transfer [1]

Transferred from		Complexity	Consolidation	Convenience	Gravity	Jurisdiction	Returned to Lower Court	Separate Representation for Child	Urgency	Point of Law	Public Interest	Total
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Armagh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Ballymena	9	2	0	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	15
	Belfast	18	2	1	0	3	0	1	1	1	0	27
	Coleraine	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Craigavon	3	0	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	7
	Downpatrick	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Dungannon	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
	Larne	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Lisburn	13	0	0	0	4	0	1	0	0	0	18
	Londonderry	10	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	14
	Newry	6	3	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	10
	Newtownards	7	1	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	1	13
	Omagh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Venue total	68	13	2	4	14	0	3	1	1	1	107
Family Care Centre	Belfast	0	1	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	6
	Craigavon	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	6
	Dungannon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Londonderry	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Venue total	4	1	5	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	12
High Court	Office of Care and Protection	0	1	1	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	6
High Court	Venue total	0	1	1	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	6
Northern Ireland Total		72	15	8	4	16	3	3	2	1	1	125

[1] Total number of reasons for transfer. There may be more than one reason for each case. There were 122 cases transferred during the period.

Table 3: Total own motion orders

	Own motion orders
Parental Responsibility	0
Contact: Permission	32
Contact: Refusal	0
Residence	34
Prohibited Steps	29
Specific Issues	7
Family Assistance	0
Care	14
Supervision	1
Education Supervision	0
Declaration of Parentage	1
Child Assessment	1
Emergency Protection	0
Extension of EPO	0
Recovery	0
Secure Accommodation	0
Article 53 Contract	0
Appointment of Guardian	53
Contribution and other Financial	0
Non-Molestation Order	0
Occupation Articles	0
Article 56 Investigations	0
Exclusion Requirement	0
Ex Parte Application refused	0
Other orders, applications etc	55
Total	227

Table 4: Total interim orders

	Interim orders
Parental Responsibility	1
Contact: Permission	2189
Contact: Refusal	0
Residence	388
Prohibited Steps	131
Specific Issues	22
Family Assistance	0
Care	1231
Supervision	61
Education Supervision	0
Child Assessment	0
Emergency Protection	0
Extension of EPO	0
Recovery	0
Secure Accommodation	65
Article 53 Contract	0
Appointment of Guardian	0
Contribution and other Financial	0
Non-Molestation Order	0
Occupation Articles	0
Article 56 Investigations	0
Exclusion Requirement	0
Other orders, applications etc	0
Total	4088

Table 5a: Sitting times disposed of by court venue

		Total sitting time	Average sitting time	Total sittings
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	12:00	03:00	4
	Ballymena	53:30	03:49	14
	Banbridge@Newry	00:05	00:05	1
	Belfast	186:45	03:24	55
	Coleraine	25:35	03:12	8
	Craigavon	29:50	02:08	14
	Dungannon	43:45	05:28	8
	Larne	09:35	01:36	6
	Lisburn	19:35	03:16	6
	Lisburn@Craigavon	23:45	03:24	7
	Londonderry	67:30	03:23	20
	Newry	49:15	03:05	16
	Newtownards	86:35	02:10	40
	Omagh	50:36	03:54	13
	Venue total	658:21	03:06	212
Family Care Centre	Belfast	107:11	02:09	50
	Craigavon	46:02	05:07	9
	Dungannon	08:17	01:39	5
	Enniskillen	00:00	00:00	0
	Londonderry	01:40	00:50	2
	Omagh	00:04	00:04	1
	Venue total	163:14	02:26	67
High Court	Royal Courts of Justice	100:02	1:15	80
High Court	Venue total	100:02	1:15	80

Table 5b: Sitting times and business disposed of in Northern Ireland

	Total sitting time	Average sitting time	Total sittings
Northern Ireland	921:37	02:34	359

[1] Total sittings include both minority and majority sittings

Table 6: Orders Made

		By Consent	Other	Total
		Orders Made		Total
Orders Made	Adjourn Generally	0	14	14
	Appointment of Guardian	0	4	4
	Article 20 Non-Molestation Order	0	1	1
	Article 53 Contact with a Child in Care	0	10	10
	Care Order	28	40	68
	Contact Order	534	191	725
	Declaration of Parentage	19	15	34
	Discharging a Care Order	3	3	6
	Discharge Contact Order	0	10	10
	Discharge Emergency Protection Order	0	1	1
	Discharge Non Molestation Occupation Order	0	0	0
	Discharge Prohibited Steps Order	5	5	10
	Discharge Residence Order	3	0	3
	Dismiss Order (Children Order)	0	0	0
	Education Supervision Order	0	9	9
	Emergency Protection Order	3	11	14
	Emergency Protection Order - Out of Hours	0	4	4
	Ex-Parte Application Refused	0	0	0
	Extension of an Emergency Protection Order	2	1	3
	Family Assistance Order	4	0	4
	Financial Provision	0	5	5
	Leave to change surname by which child is known	2	6	8
	Leave to remove Child from the UK	0	5	5
	Leave to withdraw	184	84	268
	Non Molestation Order	0	2	2
	Order of No Order (Final Order)	32	17	49
	Order for Leave of Court	0	22	22
	Order or Directions Final	0	0	0
	Order terminating appointment of GAL	79	38	117
	Other Order	46	367	413
	Parental Responsibility Order	62	15	77
	Proceedings dismissed on the merits (Final Order)	0	0	0
	Prohibited Steps Order	13	71	84
	Recovery of a Child	0	2	2
	Refusal of Article 3 Certification	0	0	0
	Residence Order	331	154	485
	Secure Accommodation Order	6	2	8
	Specific Issues Order	44	25	69
	Strike out	16	20	36
	Supervision Order	3	9	12
Total		1419	1163	2582

Table 7a: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal of cases by processing office

		Average time weeks	Number of cases	Average time weeks	Number of cases
		Public law		Private law
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	1.7	6	4.6	38
	Armagh	0	0	0	1
	Ballymena	23.7	5	34.1	87
	Bangor	0	0	0	0
	Belfast	18.9	16	14.3	299
	Coleraine	0	0	5.9	9
	Craigavon	0.1	4	20.4	54
	Downpatrick	0	0	0	0
	Dungannon	16.7	21	17.6	65
	Larne	0	0	0	1
	Lisburn	37.7	6	27.4	65
	Limavady	0	0	12.3	1
	Londonderry	6.6	2	21.9	126
	Newry	27.0	9	14.2	86
	Newtownards	30.0	14	28.7	120
	Omagh	0	1	39.1	1
	Total	20.1	84	19.9	953
Family Care Centre	Belfast	39.0	11	44.7	37
	Craigavon	50.1	7	26.3	10
	Dungannon	0	0	0	0
	Londonderry	86.6	1	100.3	4
	Total	45.6	19	45.5	51
High Court	Royal Courts of Justice	55.6	8	44.4	45
High Court	Total	55.6	8	44.4	45

Nb Cases disposed will include time spent at the lower court tier.

Table 7b: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal of cases in Northern Ireland

	Average time weeks	Number of cases	Average time weeks	Number of cases
	Public law		Private law
Northern Ireland	27.0	111	22.2	1049

Nb Cases disposed will include time spent at the lower court tier.

Table 8: Age and gender of children

	0-4	5-8	9-12	13-16	Total
Male	307	239	157	73	776
Female	274	196	167	91	728
Unknown	2	1	1	0	4
Total	583	436	325	164	1508

Appendix 1 - Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal by venue for Care Cases

		Average time in weeks	Number of cases
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	0.4	1
	Ballymena	39.3	2
	Belfast	52.8	4
	Craigavon	0	0
	Dungannon	46.3	5
	Lisburn	29.2	5
	Londonderry	0	0
	Newtownards	49.3	4
	Newry	38.8	5
	Total	40.7	26
Family Care Centre	Belfast	41.6	9
	Craigavon	50.1	7
	Dungannon	0	0
	Londonderry	86.6	1
	Total	47.8	17
High Court	Office of Care & Protection	85.8	5
High Court	Total	85.8	5

Nb Cases disposed will include time spent at the lower court tier. This table includes all care applications irrespective of the order made.

Appendix 1 - Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal for Care Cases

	Average time weeks	Number of cases
Northern Ireland	47.9	48

Nb Cases disposed will include time spent at the lower court tier. This table includes all care applications irrespective of the order made.

Appendix 2 - Average time in weeks spent at the court tier in which the case was finally disposed

		Public Law	Private Law
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	1.7	4.6
	Armagh	0	0
	Ballymena	23.7	34.0
	Bangor	0	0
	Belfast	18.9	13.9
	Coleraine	0	5.9
	Craigavon	0.1	20.1
	Downpatrick	0	0
	Dungannon	16.7	17.4
	Larne	0	0
	Limavady	0	12.3
	Lisburn	37.7	26.7
	Londonderry	6.6	21.9
	Newry	27.0	14.2
	Newtownards	30.0	27.9
	Omagh	0	24.1
	Total	20.1	19.6
Family Care Centre	Belfast	26.1	23.2
	Craigavon	40.3	24.6
	Dungannon	0	0
	Londonderry	68.4	81.1
	Total	33.5	28.0
High Court	Royal Courts of Justice	45.9	29.3
High Court	Total	45.9	29.3

Appendix 2 - Average time in weeks spent at the court tier in which the case was finally disposed

	Public Law	Private Law
Northern Ireland	24.2	20.4