Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of the time taken to progress child arrangements proceedings on the wellbeing of children and parents.

The Government is committed to ensuring that family court proceedings are resolved in a timely manner and is aware of the potential negative impact prolonged proceedings can have on the wellbeing of children and parents. The Government works closely with partners across the system, including the Family Justice Young People’s Board, to understand and reduce the impact of court delays.

The Ministry of Justice is working with cross-system partners to improve timeliness by increasing efficiency in the system and through the rollout of the Child Focused Courts model, which has been shown to resolve cases twice as fast as the national average. The Family Justice Board regularly monitors KPI data against performance targets it has set both regionally and nationally.