Asked by: David Mowat (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications have been issued in England and Wales for financial provision for the children of unmarried parents under schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 in each year since 2000.
Answered by Phillip Lee
A parent is entitled to apply for an order under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 regardless of marital status. Information on marital status is not collected in relation to Schedule 1 applications. Applications can also be made by a person who is a special guardian for the child or by a person with whom the child is living under a child arrangements order. The number of all applications issued under Schedule 1 over the period is set out in the table below.
YEAR | No. of Applications |
2000 | 556 |
2001 | 604 |
2002 | 585 |
2003 | 599 |
2004 | 675 |
2005 | 677 |
2006 | 637 |
2007 | 702 |
2008 | 615 |
2009 | 507 |
2010 | 529 |
2011 | 472 |
2012 | 504 |
2013 | 467 |
2014 | 588 |
2015 | 650 |
Asked by: David Mowat (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many days the Crown Court sat in each court chamber at Warrington in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The information requested can be found in the table below.
Crown Court sittings at Warrington (days):
Period | Courtroom 1 | Courtroom 2 | County Court courtroom |
January to December 2013 | 132 | 120 | 2 |
January to December 2014 | 105 | 182 | 1 |
January to September 2015 | 87 | 104 | 4 |
There are two dedicated Crown courtrooms in Warrington Combined Court, which also houses the County Court. The final column therefore sets out the number of days sat in County Court accommodation when, exceptionally, the Crown courtrooms were unavailable.
Asked by: David Mowat (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the inquest into the death of Clara Tully, if he will bring forward proposals to allow inquests on infants who die during labour.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Coroners must investigate all deaths which are sudden, unnatural, violent, or of unknown cause. This can include deaths of newborn babies such as in the tragic case of Clara Tully. Coroners cannot by law investigate cases in which a child has not lived independently of its mother, such as stillbirths. They can, however, open an investigation if there is any doubt over whether there was independent life, once they have received a report of the case. There are also hospital and medical investigations into stillbirths.
The Chief Coroner, HHJ Peter Thornton QC, is considering actions to improve consistency and good practice.
Asked by: David Mowat (Conservative - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much in legal aid claims has been paid to Leigh Day and Public Interest Lawyers in each of the last three years.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The net payments to these firms over the past three years are shown in the table below.
Year | Public Interest Lawyers | Leigh Day & Co |
2010/11 | £439,268.02 | £1,182,080.21 |
2011/12 | £331,238.85 | £1,216,888.66 |
2012/13 | £54,387.48 | £569,730.45 |
These payments cover all work undertaken by the firms under legal aid. The payments made will be offset by recoupment on successful cases where the opponent has paid the costs.