Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for Contact Orders submitted by people to see their grandchildren were granted in each of the last three years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Under the Children Act 1989 the court may make a child arrangements order to determine with whom a child is to live or spend time. Prior to 22nd April 2014 such orders were called contact and residence orders. The Department collates figures on the numbers of applications made by grandparents for child arrangements orders and the figures for such applications since 2010 are shown below.
Number of child arrangement (contact) order applications made by grandparents in England and Wales
Year | Applications by grandparents |
2011 | 2403 |
2012 | 2574 |
2013 | 2755 |
2014 | 1624 |
2015 – 3 quarters only | 1335 |
Unlike parents, grandparents and other family members can only make an application for a child arrangements orders with the permission of the court. The requirement to apply for the court’s permission is not designed to be an obstacle to grandparents, or other close relatives, but to act as a filter to sift out those applications that are clearly not in the child’s best interests. Experience suggests that grandparents (or other interested relatives) would not usually experience difficulty in obtaining permission where their application is motivated by a genuine concern for the child.
The Department does not collate figures on applications for a child arrangements order where the court’s permission has been sought. This information could only be obtained by manually checking each case file at disproportionate cost. Similarly, the Department does not collate figures centrally on family members named in a child arrangements order. Details of the numbers of child arrangements orders issued specifically for grandparents to see their grandchildren could only be obtained by checking each file at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people in (a) Rossendale and (b) Darwen were found guilty of (i) drunk and disorderly behaviour and (ii) drunk and aggravated behaviour in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database holds information on defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences in England and Wales. This database holds information on offences provided by the statutes under which proceedings are brought but not the specific circumstances of each case. It is not possible to separately identify from this centrally held information the location of an offence or the home address of an offender. This detailed information may be held on the court record but due to the size and complexity is not reported centrally to the MoJ. As such, the information requested can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.