Children Order Bulletin October to December 2010 (Provisional Figures)

Summary

During October – December 2010:

There were 1,386 applications (Fig 1) entered during the period, of which:
159 = Public
1,227 = Private

Figure 1: Number of applications received by court tier
Family Proceedings	92%
Family Care Centre	3%
High Court	5%

There were 1,351 applications dealt with during the period, of which:
152 = Public
1,199 = Private
There were 169 cases transferred during the period with 175 reasons for transfer (Fig 2).

Figure 2: Reasons for Transfer
Complexity	95
Consolidation	30
Convenience	1
Gravity	8
Jurisdiction	22
Returned to Lower Court	7
Separate Representation for Child	4
Urgency	3
Point of Law	5

Of the own motion orders made, 12% were in relation to Contact issues.
The majority of interim orders made were in relation to Contact (2,567) and Care (1,200) issues.
Court time spent on Children Order business between October and December 2010:
Total time = 1156 hours 48 minutes
Average sitting time = 2 hours 27 minutes
There were 3,042 orders made between October and December 2010.
The average waiting time in weeks from lodgement to disposal for public law cases was 35 weeks.
The average waiting time in weeks between lodgement to disposal for private law cases was 25 weeks.
There were 1,736 children involved in Children Order Proceedings during the period, of which 40% were under the age of five.

Table 1a: Applications entered and disposed

		Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
Private Law	Family Proceedings Court	1135	1059
	Family Care Centre	32	79
	High Court	60	61
	Total	1227	1199
Public Law	Family Proceedings Court	147	100
	Family Care Centre	4	32
	High Court	8	20
	Total	159	152

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	8	126	73
	Armagh	0	0	0	1
	Ballymena	0	10	3	66
	Bangor	0	0	2	1
	Belfast	41	30	344	310
	Coleraine	0	0	9	8
	Craigavon	15	7	71	59
	Downpatrick	0	0	1	0
	Dungannon	13	13	85	85
	Larne	0	0	2	0
	Limavady	0	0	0	0
	Lisburn	5	1	90	71
	Londonderry	7	7	140	123
	Magherafelt	0	0	0	0
	Newry	16	7	119	106
	Newtownards	24	15	141	155
	Omagh	2	2	2	1
	Venue total	147	100	1135	1059
Family Care Centre	Belfast	2	18	25	44
	Craigavon	1	10	5	24
	Dungannon	1	2	0	2
	Londonderry	0	2	2	9
	Venue total	4	32	32	79
High Court	Royal Courts of Justice	8	20	60	61
High Court	Venue total	8	20	60	61

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	159	152	1227	1199

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	Other	Total
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
	Armagh	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
	Ballymena	12	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	15
	Belfast	29	8	0	0	6	0	3	0	2	0	0	48
	Coleraine	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Craigavon	6	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	10
	Downpatrick	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Dungannon	4	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	7
	Larne	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Lisburn	6	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	10
	Londonderry	8	3	0	4	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	17
	Newry	8	7	0	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	20
	Newtownards	8	3	1	0	6	0	0	0	1	0	0	19
	Omagh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Venue total	81	28	1	8	22	0	4	0	4	0	0	148
Family Care Centre	Belfast	5	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	7
	Craigavon	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	4
	Dungannon	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
	Londonderry	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	9
	Venue total	14	2	0	0	0	2	0	3	1	0	0	22
High Court	Office of Care and Protection	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	5
High Court	Venue total	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	5
Northern Ireland Total		95	30	1	8	22	7	4	3	5	0	0	175

[1] Total number of reasons for transfer. There may be more than one reason for each case. There were 169 cases transferred during the period.

Table 3: Total own motion orders

	Own motion orders
Parental Responsibility	1
Contact: Permission	20
Contact: Refusal	0
Residence	25
Prohibited Steps	8
Specific Issues	4
Family Assistance	0
Care	1
Supervision	0
Education Supervision	0
Declaration of Parentage	0
Child Assessment	4
Emergency Protection	0
Extension of EPO	0
Recovery	0
Secure Accommodation	0
Article 53 Contract	0
Appointment of Guardian	37
Contribution and other Financial	0
Non-Molestation Order	0
Occupation Articles	0
Article 56 Investigations	0
Exclusion Requirement	0
Ex Parte Application refused	12
Other orders, applications etc	61
Total	173

Table 4: Total interim orders

	Interim orders
Parental Responsibility	4
Contact: Permission	2567
Contact: Refusal	0
Residence	433
Prohibited Steps	121
Specific Issues	4
Family Assistance	0
Care	1200
Supervision	90
Education Supervision	0
Child Assessment	0
Emergency Protection	0
Extension of EPO	0
Recovery	0
Secure Accommodation	49
Article 53 Contract	0
Appointment of Guardian	0
Contribution and other Financial	0
Non-Molestation Order	7
Occupation Articles	0
Article 56 Investigations	0
Exclusion Requirement	0
Other orders, applications etc	0
Total	4475

Table 5a: Sitting times disposed of by court venue

		Total sitting time	Average sitting time	Total sittings
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	16:00	04:00	4
	Ballymena	00:00	00:00	0
	Ballymena@Antrim	45:05	03:13	14
	Banbridge@Newry	00:00	00:00	0
	Belfast	177:37	3:10	56
	Coleraine	29:15	04:11	7
	Craigavon	32:50	03:17	10
	Dungannon	43:40	04:22	10
	Larne	12:55	04:18	3
	Lisburn	55:05	04:14	13
	Lisburn@Craigavon	00:00	00:00	0
	Londonderry	77:15	03:52	20
	Newry	54:15	03:11	17
	Newtownards	79:10	02:02	39
	Omagh	49:43	04:09	12
	Venue total	672:50	03:17	205
Family Care Centre	Armagh	28:30	05:42	5
	Belfast	167:04	02:04	81
	Craigavon	64:49	04:38	14
	Dungannon	04:49	02:25	2
	Enniskillen	01:58	01:58	1
	Lisburn	06:50	06:50	1
	Londonderry	18:45	00:54	21
	Omagh	03:37	01:49	2
	Venue total	296:22	2:20	127
High Court	Royal Courts of Justice	187:36	1:20	141
High Court	Venue total	187:36	1:20	141

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

	Total sitting time	Average sitting time	Total sittings
Northern Ireland	1156:48	02:27	473

[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	12	12
	Appointment of Guardian	0	6	6
	Article 20 Non-Molestation Order	0	3	3
	Article 53 Contact with a Child in Care	0	18	18
	Care Order	33	82	115
	Contact Order	669	208	877
	Declaration of Parentage	19	18	37
	Discharging a Care Order	3	7	10
	Discharge Contact Order	0	0	0
	Discharge Emergency Protection Order	0	6	6
	Discharge Non Molestation Occupation Order	0	1	1
	Discharge Prohibited Steps Order	2	6	8
	Discharge Residence Order	0	1	1
	Dismiss Order (Children Order)	0	43	43
	Education Supervision Order	0	19	19
	Emergency Protection Order	3	23	26
	Emergency Protection Order - Out of Hours	0	0	0
	Ex-Parte Application Refused	0	71	71
	Extension of an Emergency Protection Order	2	6	8
	Family Assistance Order	3	4	7
	Financial Provision	0	4	4
	Leave to change surname by which child is known	0	3	3
	Leave to remove Child from the UK	2	4	6
	Leave to withdraw	192	114	306
	Non Molestation Order	0	0	0
	Order of No Order (Final Order)	0	0	0
	Order for Leave of Court	0	20	20
	Order or Directions Final	0	0	0
	Order terminating appointment of GAL	104	60	164
	Other Order	29	214	243
	Parental Responsibility Order	92	19	111
	Proceedings dismissed on the merits (Final Order)	47	53	100
	Prohibited Steps Order	17	42	59
	Recovery of a Child	0	1	1
	Refusal of Article 3 Certification	0	4	4
	Residence Order	444	167	611
	Secure Accommodation Order	3	8	11
	Specific Issues Order	38	21	59
	Strike out	20	32	52
	Supervision Order	4	16	20
Total		1726	1316	3042

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	8.0	8	7.4	73
	Armagh	0	0	33.6	1
	Ballymena	37.4	10	34.0	66
	Bangor	0	0	0	1
	Belfast	17.2	30	19.1	310
	Coleraine	0	0	16.6	8
	Craigavon	32.3	7	27.4	59
	Downpatrick	0	0	0	0
	Dungannon	28.5	13	21.2	85
	Larne	0	0	0	0
	Lisburn	33.1	1	24.7	71
	Limavady	0	0	0	0
	Londonderry	36.8	7	25.3	123
	Newry	33.8	7	22.1	106
	Newtownards	13.6	15	30.1	155
	Omagh	0	2	0	1
	Total	22.8	100	22.8	1059
Family Care Centre	Belfast	45.4	18	41.7	44
	Craigavon	45.9	10	48.4	24
	Dungannon	5.9	2	34.0	2
	Londonderry	92.6	2	44.9	9
	Total	46.0	32	43.9	79
High Court	Royal Courts of Justice	76.9	20	39.6	61
High Court	Total	76.9	20	39.6	61

N.B. 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	34.8	152	25.0	1199

N.B. 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	374	239	190	106	909
Female	325	220	177	102	824
Unknown	2	1	0	0	3
Total	701	460	367	208	1736

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	0
	Ballymena	42.2	7
	Belfast	45.8	6
	Craigavon	64.0	3
	Dungannon	48.6	3
	Lisburn	33.1	1
	Londonderry	55.1	4
	Newtownards	39.9	3
	Newry	47.3	5
	Total	47.4	32
Family Care Centre	Belfast	51.0	14
	Craigavon	51.2	5
	Dungannon	0	0
	Londonderry	92.6	2
	Total	55.0	21
High Court	Office of Care & Protection	86.8	15
High Court	Total	86.8	15

N.B. 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	58.4	68

N.B. 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	8.0	7.4
	Armagh	0	33.6
	Ballymena	37.4	34.0
	Bangor	0	0
	Belfast	17.2	18.7
	Coleraine	0	16.6
	Craigavon	32.3	27.4
	Downpatrick	0	0
	Dungannon	28.5	20.9
	Larne	0	0
	Limavady	0	0
	Lisburn	33.1	24.7
	Londonderry	36.8	23.9
	Newry	33.8	22.1
	Newtownards	13.6	30.0
	Omagh	0	0
	Total	22.8	22.5
Family Care Centre	Belfast	36.0	25.6
	Craigavon	29.0	27.6
	Dungannon	2.5	19.2
	Londonderry	36.9	32.8
	Total	31.8	26.9
High Court	Royal Courts of Justice	58.3	33.4
High Court	Total	58.3	33.4

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

	Public Law	Private Law
Northern Ireland	29.4	23.3