Children’s Order Quarterly Bulletin

July – September 2009 (Provisional Figures)

Table 1a: Applications entered and disposed
Table 1b: Applications entered by processing office and disposed by court venue
Table 1c: Applications entered and disposed
Table 2: Reasons for transfer [1]
Table 3: Total own motion orders
Table 4: Total interim orders
Table 5: Sitting times disposed of by court venue
Table 5: Sitting times and business disposed of in Northern Ireland
Table 6: Orders Made
Table 7a: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal of cases by processing office
Table 7b: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal of cases in Northern Ireland
Table 8: Age and gender of children
Appendix 1 - Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal by venue for Care Cases
Appendix 1 - Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal for Care Cases
Appendix 2 - Average time in weeks spent at the court tier in which the case was finally disposed
Appendix 2 - Average time in weeks spent at the court tier in which the case was finally disposed

Summary

There were 1,171 applications (Fig 1) entered during the period, of which:
144 = Public
1027 = Private
There were 858 applications dealt with during the period, of which:
94 = Public
764 = Private
There were 150 cases (Fig 2) transferred during the period.
Of the own motion orders made, 46% were in relation to Care issues.
The majority of interim orders made were in relation to Contact (1,520) and Care (1,578) issues.
Court time spent on Children Order business between July - September 2009:
Total time = 938 hours 51 minutes
Ave. sitting time = 2 hours 35 minutes
There were 1,828 orders made between July - September 2009.
The average waiting time in weeks between lodgement to disposal for public law cases was 34 weeks.
The average waiting time in weeks between lodgement to disposal for private law cases was 24 weeks.
There were 1,086 children involved in Children Order Proceedings during the period, of which 38% were under the age of five.

Figure 1: Number of applications received by court tier Figure 2: Reasons for Transfer

Table 1a: Applications entered and disposed

		Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
Private Law	Family Proceedings Court	957	702
	Family Care Centre	38	37
	High Court	32	25
	Total	1027	764
Public Law	Family Proceedings Court	132	81
	Family Care Centre	6	9
	High Court	6	4
	Total	144	94

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

Table 1b: Applications entered by processing office and disposed by court venue

		Public Law		Private Law
		Number of applications entered	Number of disposals	Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	0	0	2	7
	Armagh	0	0	2	0
	Ballymena	22	6	121	51
	Banbridge@Newry	0	0	0	1
	Belfast	36	17	230	192
	Coleraine	1	1	7	12
	Craigavon	10	9	70	42
	Dungannon	6	5	48	16
	Enniskillen	0	0	1	1
	Larne	0	1	2	11
	Lisburn	4	3	98	54
	Londonderry	10	5	134	108
	Newry	18	7	103	78
	Newtownards	25	13	139	108
	Omagh	0	14	0	21
	Venue total	132	81	957	702
Family Care Centre	Belfast	4	7	12	16
	Craigavon	1	2	25	14
	Downpatrick	0	0	0	1
	Dungannon	1	0	0	1
	Enniskillen	0	0	0	1
	Londonderry	0	0	1	4
	Venue total	6	9	38	37
High Court	Royal Courts of Justice	6	4	32	25
High Court	Venue total	6	4	32	25

Private law = residence, contact, specific issues, prohibited steps, parental responsibility, financial contribution, guardianship, family assistance, non-molestation and occupation orders.
Where court venue is missing, disposal defaults to processing office.

Table 1c: Applications entered and disposed

	Public Law		Private Law
	Number of applications entered	Number of disposals	Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
Northern Ireland	144	94	1027	764

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	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Armagh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Ballymena	6	3	0	0	6	0	0	0	1	0	0	16
	Belfast	13	4	1	2	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	26
	Coleraine	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Craigavon	6	2	1	0	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	15
	Dungannon	8	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	13
	Larne	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Lisburn	13	1	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	18
	Londonderry	8	6	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	16
	Newry	7	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	11
	Newtownards	13	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	16
	Omagh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Venue total	74	23	5	4	21	0	2	0	1	1	0	131
Family Care Centre	Belfast	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	5
	Craigavon	4	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	7
	Dungannon	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5
	Londonderry	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Venue total	10	2	1	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	17
High Court	Office of Care and Protection	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
	Matrimonial Office	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
	Venue total	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2
Northern Ireland Total		84	26	6	4	22	4	2	0	1	1	0	150

[1] Total number of reasons for transfer. There may be more than one reason for each case.

Table 3: Total own motion orders

	Own motion orders
Parental Responsibility	1
Contact: Permission	101
Contact: Refusal	0
Residence	50
Prohibited Steps	4
Specific Issues	11
Family Assistance	0
Care	250
Supervision	0
Education Supervision	0
Declaration of Parentage	0
Child Assessment	0
Emergency Protection	7
Extension of EPO	0
Recovery	1
Secure Accommodation	6
Article 53 Contract	0
Appointment of Guardian	26
Contribution and other Financial	0
Non-Molestation Order	0
Occupation Articles	0
Article 56 Investigations	0
Exclusion Requirement	0
Other orders, applications etc	82
Total	539

Table 4: Total interim orders

	Interim orders
Parental Responsibility	3
Contact: Permission	1520
Contact: Refusal	0
Residence	259
Prohibited Steps	98
Specific Issues	9
Family Assistance	0
Care	1578
Supervision	89
Education Supervision	0
Child Assessment	0
Emergency Protection	0
Extension of EPO	0
Recovery	0
Secure Accommodation	45
Article 53 Contract	0
Appointment of Guardian	0
Contribution and other Financial	0
Non-Molestation Order	24
Occupation Articles	0
Article 56 Investigations	0
Exclusion Requirement	0
Other orders, applications etc	0
Total	3625

Table 5: Sitting times disposed of by court venue

		Total sitting time	Average sitting time	Total sittings
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	13:05	4:22	3
	Ballymena	50:25	3:09	16
	Banbridge@Newry	0:05	0:05	1
	Belfast	184:40	3:25	54
	Coleraine	22:15	3:11	7
	Craigavon	31:05	2:50	11
	Dungannon	28:15	3:08	9
	Enniskillen	1:40	1:40	1
	Larne	10:03	1:41	6
	Lisburn	33:30	2:48	12
	Londonderry	69:06	3:38	19
	Newry	52:15	3:16	16
	Newtownards	104:45	2:33	41
	Omagh	42:55	3:54	11
	Venue total	644:04	3:07	207
Family Care Centre	Belfast	109:35	2:33	43
	Craigavon	19:15	3:13	6
	Dungannon	0:20	0:20	1
	Londonderry	6:55	0:59	7
	Omagh	0:15	0:15	1
	Venue total	136:20	2:21	58
High Court	Matrimonial	3:00	3:00	1
	Office of Care & Protection	155:27	1:36	97
	Venue total	158:27	1:37	98

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

	Total sitting time	Average sitting time	Total sittings
Northern Ireland	938:51	2:35	363

[1] Total sittings include both minority and majority sittings

Table 6: Orders Made

		Orders Made		Total
		By Consent	Other	Total
Orders Made	ADJOURN GENERALLY	0	15	15
	ARTICLE 20 NON-MOLESTATION ORDER	0	3	3
	ARTICLE 53 CONTACT WITH A CHILD IN CARE	0	8	8
	C18 - FINAL ORDER	89	121	210
	CARE ORDER	26	12	38
	CASE WITHDRAWN	0	35	35
	CONTACT ORDER	386	148	534
	DECLARATION OF PARENTAGE	6	2	8
	DISCHARGING A CARE ORDER	2	2	4
	DISMISS ORDER	1	59	60
	EDUCATION SUPERVISION ORDER	0	4	4
	EMERGENCY PROTECTION ORDER	7	17	24
	EMERGENCY PROTECTION ORDER - OUT OF HOURS	0	1	1
	EX-PARTE APPLICATION REFUSED	2	4	6
	EXTENSION OF AN EMERGENCY PROTECTION ORDER	2	0	2
	FAMILY ASSISTANCE ORDER	0	0	0
	FINANCIAL PROVISION	1	4	5
	LEAVE TO CHANGE SURNAME BY WHICH CHILD IS KNOWN	3	2	5
	LEAVE TO WITHDRAW	0	59	59
	NON MOLESTATION ORDER	0	3	3
	ORDER OF NO ORDER (FINAL ORDER)	6	5	11
	ORDER FOR LEAVE OF COURT	0	21	21
	ORDER FOR RECOVERY OF A CHILD	0	6	6
	ORDER OR DIRECTIONS FINAL	14	6	20
	ORDER TERMINATING APPOINTMENT OF GAL	69	33	102
	OTHER ORDER	58	75	133
	PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY ORDER	36	17	53
	PROHIBITED STEPS ORDER	7	29	36
	RESIDENCE ORDER	208	108	316
	SECURE ACCOMMODATION ORDER	6	3	9
	SPECIFIC ISSUES ORDER	30	21	51
	STRIKE OUT	2	31	33
	SUPERVISION ORDER	9	4	13
Total		970	858	1828

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

		Public law		Private law
		Average time weeks	Number of cases	Average time weeks	Number of cases
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	0	0	0	0
	Armagh	0	0	0	0
	Ballymena	33.7	8	23.4	76
	Banbridge	0	0	0	0
	Bangor	0	0	14.9	1
	Belfast	13.7	17	20.8	192
	Coleraine	0	0	14.4	4
	Craigavon	33.9	9	25.4	43
	Dungannon	35.0	18	23.4	37
	Enniskillen	0	0	0	1
	Larne	0	0	0	1
	Lisburn	57.7	3	19.2	53
	Londonderry	14.4	5	21.7	108
	Newry	26.9	7	21.1	79
	Newtownards	13.5	13	25.4	107
	Omagh	26.7	1	0	0
	Total	25.6	81	22.1	702
Family Care Centre	Belfast	69.0	5	48.2	11
	Craigavon	26.1	4	42.5	20
	Dungannon	0	0	62.6	2
	Londonderry	0	0	35.1	4
	Total	49.9	9	44.5	37
High Court	Matrimonial Office	0	0	0	0
	Office of Care & Protection	162.2	4	31.4	25
	Total	162.2	4	31.4	25

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

	Public law		Private law
	Average time weeks	Number of cases	Average time weeks	Number of cases
Northern Ireland	33.7	94	23.5	764

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	221	168	110	51	550
Female	186	180	109	56	531
Unknown	5	0	0	0	5
Total	412	348	219	107	1086

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	Ballymena	52.5	4
	Belfast	33.2	5
	Craigavon	48.4	5
	Dungannon	59.5	8
	Lisburn	81.4	2
	Londonderry	1.1	1
	Newtownards	33.6	4
	Newry	37.0	5
	Omagh	26.7	1
	Total	45.8	35
Family Care Centre	Belfast	69.0	5
	Craigavon	31.1	2
	Total	58.2	7
High Court	Office of Care & Protection	278.9	2
High Court	Total	278.9	2

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	58.4	44

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	0	0
	Armagh	0	0
	Ballymena	33.7	22.9
	Bangor	0	14.9
	Belfast	13.7	20.6
	Coleraine	0	9.9
	Craigavon	33.9	25.4
	Dungannon	35.0	23.4
	Enniskillen	0	0
	Larne	0	0
	Lisburn	57.7	18.0
	Londonderry	14.4	21.7
	Newry	26.9	19.8
	Newtownards	13.5	25.4
	Omagh	26.7	0
	Total	25.6	21.8
Family Care Centre	Belfast	51.5	22.5
	Craigavon	24.3	36.7
	Dungannon	0	37.4
	Londonderry	0	33.7
	Total	39.4	32.2
High Court	Matrimonial	0	0
	Office of Care & Protection	147.7	30.2
	Total	147.7	30.2

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

	Public Law	Private Law
Northern Ireland	32.1	22.6