Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment the Department has made of the feasibility of linking family court data with other Government datasets to better understand the long-term outcomes for parents involved in family justice proceedings.

The Ministry of Justice recognises the value of linking family court data with other government datasets, including mortality datasets, to improve understanding of the longer-term outcomes of children and families involved in family justice proceedings. Through the Data First programme, family court datasets, including data from HMCTS family courts, Cafcass, Cafcass Cymru and Welsh children’s social care have been linked (and personal identifiers then removed). These are made available to accredited researchers through the SAIL Databank.

The Ministry of Justice is working with partners, including the Department for Education, Cafcass and Cafcass Cymru to explore how data linkage can be improved and become more routine and sustainable across the family justice system, whilst ensuring data protection safeguards are in place.