Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the average waiting time for Child Maintenance Service appeal decisions.

The mean case age at clearance for Child Maintenance Service appeals for the latest periods for which data are available was 58* weeks for the quarter April to June 2024; and 57 weeks for the quarter July to September 2024.

Waiting times are calculated from receipt of the appeal to the final disposal decision. The final outcome of any appeal is not necessarily achieved at its first hearing.

*Please note that from April 2023 the SSCS Tribunal started to list cases using a new Scheduling and Listing solution. This, alongside HMCTS migrating to a new Strategic Data Platform, has resulted in some cases heard and decided using this new listing solution that may not be included in the data above.