Family court statistics quarterly: October to December 2016
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-05-25)

Family Court Statistics. The bulletin presents the latest statistics on the type and volume of family cases that are received and processed through the justice system of England and Wales.

It focuses on all areas of family justice including public and private law cases; matrimonial matters e.g. divorce; domestic violence remedy orders; forced marriage protection orders; female genital mutilation protection orders; adoption; mental capacity e.g. Court of Protection and Office of the Public Guardian, and the Probate Service.  Data available include number of cases starting and disposed of, applications and orders made, timeliness measures and legal representation.  Data are available at a national, regional and designated family judge (DFJ) area. 

These statistics are used to monitor court workloads, assist in the development of family justice policy and its subsequent monitoring and evaluation.

Family Court Statistics 
Quarterly, England and Wales 
 
Annual 2016 including 
October to December 2016 
 
Ministry of Justice 
Statistics bulletin  
 
 
 
Published 30 March 2017 

Contents  
Contents 
1 
Introduction 
2 
Key Findings 
4 
Section 1 - The Family Justice System 
6 
Section 2 - Public Law 
8 
Section 3 - Private Law 
12 
Section 4 - Legal representation 
14 
Section 5 - Matrimonial matters 
17 
Section 6 - Domestic violence remedy orders 
20 
Section 7 - Forced Marriage Protection Orders 
20 
Section 8 – Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders 
22 
Section 9 - Adoptions 
23 
Section 10 – The Mental Capacity Act 
24 
Section 11 – The Probate Service 
28 
Contacts 
30 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
2 
Introduction 
This statistical bulletin presents statistics on activity in the family courts of 
England and Wales and provides provisional figures for 2016 as well as the 
latest quarter (October to December 2016) with accompanying commentary 
and analysis. The figures give a summary overview of the volume of cases 
dealt with by these courts over time, with statistics also broken down for the 
main types of case involved. Detailed statistics and historic time series can 
be found in the accompanying Excel tables. 
The statistics in this bulletin are used to monitor court workloads, to assist in 
the development of policy, and their subsequent monitoring and evaluation. 
Information on civil cases can be found here:  
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-justice-statistics    
Information on criminal cases can be found here:  
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics 
Information on publicly funding legal services is now published by the Legal 
Aid Agency and can be found here:  
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics 
There is also a separate Guide to Family Court Statistics published 
alongside this publication which provides definitions for the terms used in 
this report, information regarding the symbols and conventions used in the 
bulletin, as well as information about the systems and data sources used to 
compile the statistics.  
Family Court Statistics Visualisation Tool 
As part of our wider work on improving data visualisation and accessibility, 
we have developed a data visualisation tool which sits on top of the data 
underlying the publication and its associated csv files – the tool provides 
users with the capability to: 
 interrogate the published information at a lower level of detail; and  
 produce bespoke charts specific to their user requirements. 
The tool can be found here: 
https://public.tableau.com/profile/moj.analysis#!/vizhome/FamilyCourtstatisti
cstool2016Q4/Frontpage 
We are seeking views on how effectively the data visualisation tool:  
 better meets user needs; and 
 improves the dissemination of information. 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
3 
As well as requesting feedback on the data visualisation tool, the structure 
and content of this report are continually being reviewed to reflect user 
requirements. If you have any feedback about the report generally, please 
contact the production team using the contact details at the back of this 
report. 
Previous editions of Family Court Statistics Quarterly can be found at: 
www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly  
Earlier editions of the information presented in this bulletin prior to July 2014 
are in the Family chapters of the Court Statistics Quarterly publications which 
can be found at: 
www.gov.uk/government/collections/court-statistics-quarterly   
There are a number of CSV files that support this publication, in the 
accompanying zip file. Further information about these files can be found in 
the word document ‘Guide to Family Justice - Guide to national and court-
level information.doc’, which is also included in the zip file. The CSV files 
contain:  
 Selected summary of family cases by Designated Family Judge area 
and region. 
 Additional breakdowns and further details for each of the ‘main tables’ 
published alongside this document. 
Changes in reporting 
There are no new tables in this edition of Family Court Statistics Quarterly 
however it should be noted that there has been a revision to the 
methodology used to produce Tables 7 and 8 – specifically to account for 
the issue in Public law cases where applicants would generally be public 
bodies (mostly local authorities) with access to their own legal resources, 
but who would previously have been shown as an ‘unrepresented’ party. 
This has now been amended such that they are now shown as represented 
parties in the above tables, and this has changed the percentage of 
applicants with legal representation in Public law cases with at least one 
hearing from around 20% to 99%. 
Users of the statistics 
The main users of these statistics are Ministers and officials in central 
government responsible for developing policy with regard to family justice. 
Other users include the central government departments, and various 
voluntary organisations with an interest in family justice. The data also feed 
into statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics, such as public 
sector productivity. 
Next publication 
The next edition of Family Court Statistics Quarterly is scheduled to be 
published on 29 June 2017, covering the period January to March 2017. 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
4 
Key Findings 
This report presents statistics on activity in the family courts of England and 
Wales in 2016 and the fourth quarter of 2016 (October to December). 
 Over 256,000 cases started in family courts in England and Wales in 
2016, an increase over the previous two years mainly driven by 
increases in public law, private law and financial remedy cases. 
 The number of public law cases started remained fairly steady 
between 2011 and 2014, until rising to 16,000 in 2015 and again to 
nearly 19,000 in 2016, an increase of 18% from the previous year. 
Although figures for Q4 2016 show the first downturn since the start 
of 2015, volumes are still up compared with Q4 2015. 
 The number of private law cases started in 2016 increased by 11% 
over the previous year from 43,347 to 48,244.   
 The average time for the disposal of a care or supervision application 
saw a long term downward trend seen from over 55 weeks in 2011 to 
30 weeks in 2014. The drop continued, albeit at a reduced rate over 
the last two years, to an average of 28.3 weeks for 2015, and then to 
26.9 weeks for 2016. 
 Accordingly, the percentage of care or supervision proceedings 
disposed of within 26 weeks, increased from 12% in 2011 to 61% in 
2016, following on from the 26 week time limit introduced in the 
Children and Families Act 2014. 
 The number of applications for domestic violence remedy orders has 
remained stable over recent years at around 19,000 non-molestation 
and 4,700 occupation applications per annum. 
 Following their introduction in July 2015, there have been 121 
applications and 94 orders made for Female Genital Mutilation 
Protection Orders (FGMPOs) up to the end of 2016. 
 5,868 applications were made for an adoption order in 2016 
compared to 6,259 in 2015, and a further drop from the 6,830 
applications recorded for 2014. 
 There has been a steady upward trend in the number of applications 
made under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, with nearly 30,000 made 
in 2016. The number of orders made however fell in 2016 to 26,494 
from a high of 29,083 in the previous year.  
 Applications relating to deprivation of liberty increased from 109 in 
2013 to 525 in 2014 to 1,497 in 2015. Latest figures show another 
large increase, more than doubling to 3,143 applications in 2016.  

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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 The number of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) received has been 
increasing considerably and steadily since 2008, from 52,494 to 
590,593 in 2016.  
 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
6 
Section 1 - The Family Justice System 
Until 22 April 2014, family cases were dealt with at Family Proceedings 
Courts (which were part of the magistrates’ courts), at county courts or in 
the Family Division of the High Court.  From 22 April 2014, all family cases 
are now dealt with in the Single Family Court. 
Family courts deal with cases such as: parental disputes (Private Law), local 
authority intervention to protect children (Public Law), matrimonial cases 
such as divorce petitions, the financial provisions for children after divorce 
or relationship breakdown, domestic violence remedies and adoption. 
Total family court case caseload 
In 2016 over 256,000 new cases started in family courts, an increase of 4% 
from the previous year. This increase is primarily due to the rise in the 
number of Public and Private law cases and Financial remedy cases, of 
18%, 11% and 9% between 2015 and 2016 respectively (see Table 1 in the 
accompanying Excel tables). 
Table 1 also shows the total number of cases reaching a conclusion in 
family courts annually and quarterly from 2011. There were nearly 231,000 
cases disposed in 2016, also up 4% from the previous year. 
Figure 1: New family cases started, by case type, January to March 
2011 to October to December 2016 
 
 
 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
7 
Timeliness by Case Type 
Figure 2 shows the average number of weeks to first disposal across the 
different case types in the family courts. 
Whilst the average time for other case types remained stable between 2011 
and 2016, the average time to first disposal for public law cases nearly 
halved in the same time span. In 2011, public law cases took almost twice 
as long as other case types (50 weeks). However, from 2012 the average 
number of weeks to reach a first disposal fell steadily to 27 weeks in 2014 
and 2015. It then dropped a further week in 2016 (Table 7). 
Detailed figures are available in Table 7, and timeliness by legal 
representation figures are provided in Section 4. 
Figure 2: Timeliness for proceedings in the Family Court by case type, 
January to March 2011 to October to December 2016 
 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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Section 2 - Public Law 
Public law cases are those brought by local authorities or, very rarely, an 
authorised person to protect the child and ensure they get the care they 
need. They can apply for a range of different orders, including a care or 
supervision order which determines whether the child should be looked after 
or supervised by the local authority, or an emergency protection order which 
allows an individual or local authority to take a child away from a place 
where they are in immediate danger to a place of safety.  
Following the publicity surrounding the Baby P case1, the number of children 
involved in public law applications made by local authorities jumped from 
around 20,000 to almost 26,000 in 2009 and subsequently to 29,500 in 
2011 (Table 2). Figures remained fairly steady until late 2015 since when 
there has been a steady increase, such that there were nearly 35,000 
children involved in public law applications in 2016, an increase of 16% from 
2015 (Figure 3). Although figures for Q4 2016 show the first downturn since 
the start of 2015, volumes are still up compared with the equivalent quarter 
for 2015. Each region experienced the recent rise in the number of children 
involved in public law applications, although the size of the increase varies. 
The MoJ and HMCTS are continuing to look into the reasons behind the 
recent increases in public law applications. 
Figure 3: Public law applications: number of children involved, number 
of application events and number of cases started, January to March 
2011 to October to December 2016 
 
                                            
1https://web.archive.org/web/20081208061525/http://www.haringey.gov.uk:80/index/news_
and_events/latest_news/childa.htm  

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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More than one application may be made during the life of a case. The 
number of public law cases started increased by 18% to nearly 19,000 in 
2016 compared to 2015. The number of applications made, which can cover 
more than one child, was over 20,000 in 2016 – on average, there were 1.7 
children involved in each application. 
The number of individual children involved in Public law applications by age 
group is given in Table 5 – showing that nearly half of the children are aged 
under 5 at the time of application. 
There were 43,327 children involved in public law orders made in 2016. The 
number of orders made is generally higher than the number of applications 
made as some orders relate to applications made in an earlier time period, 
and an application for one type of order can result in multiple orders being 
made. There were 10,649 children involved in public law orders made in 
October to December 2016. 
Figure 4 shows that the most common type of order applied for in October 
to December 2016 was for care (74% of children involved in applications). 
There is often a different pattern between the types of order applied for and 
the orders that are given because an application for one type can result in 
an order of a different type being made. For example, there were 591 
children involved in applications for a supervision order in October to 
December 2016, compared to 1,906 children involved in supervision orders 
made in that same quarter (Table 3). This is because some supervision 
orders made resulted from an application for a different order type. Care 
and supervision orders made up almost half of the total orders made in 
October to December 2016.  
Figure 4: Public law applications and orders made, showing the 
number of children involved in each order type, October to December 
2016  
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) also 
publishes data on the number of care applications, the latest edition of 
which can be found here: 
https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/leaflets-resources/organisational-material/care-
and-private-law-demand-statistics/care-demand-statistics.aspx   
Case level care order figures are currently not produced by the MoJ and so 
comparisons between the two datasets cannot be made at this time.  
Timeliness of care proceedings  
Statistics on the time taken to complete care and supervision cases in the 
family courts of England and Wales are given in Table 6. This table presents 
summary statistics showing the time, in weeks, between the date an 
application for a care or supervision order was lodged and the date the first 
care, supervision, or other substantive order was made in the case, for 
those cases disposed of during each quarter.  
A long term downward trend seen since 2011 reduced the average time for 
a disposal to be made to around 30 weeks in 2014. The drop continued, 
albeit at a reduced rate over the last two years, to an average of 28.3 weeks 
for 2015, and then to 26.9 weeks for 2016 (Figure 5). 
The Children and Families Act 2014 introduced a 26 week time limit for 
completing care and supervision proceedings. 61% of care or supervision 
proceedings disposed in 2016 were within this limit. 
Figure 5: Timeliness for care and supervision proceedings in the 
Family Court, January to March 2011 to October to December 2016 
 
 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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The average time for a disposal can be skewed by cases that take a long 
time, and so the median time is also calculated. The median time to make a 
disposal in a case was 24.9 weeks for all children involved in care and 
supervision proceedings where a decision was reached during 2016. This 
indicates that half of the children waited 24.9 weeks or less from application 
to a substantive disposal, and the other half waited at least 24.9 weeks. This 
median value is different to the average (mean) quoted in the paragraph 
above as it is not influenced by the few very long case durations. 
Figure 6 shows how many children were involved in each timeliness band in 
their case proceedings for cases disposed in October to December 2016, 
where the median time was also 24.9 weeks. 
Figure 6: Timeliness for care and supervision proceedings showing 
number of children involved in each timeliness band, October to 
December 2016 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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Section 3 - Private Law 
Private law cases are those court cases between two or more private 
individuals who are trying to resolve a dispute. This is generally where 
parents have split up and there is a disagreement about who the children 
should live with and have contact or otherwise spend time with. 
The number of private law cases started in 2016 increased by 11% from the 
previous year from 43,347 to 48,244 (Table 2). The number of children 
involved in applications also increased by 10% over the same period to 
49,910. These increases are evident across all regions in England and 
Wales. 
The number of children involved in private law orders made in 2016 was 
nearly 165,000, up slightly by 2% compared to 2015.  
The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) also 
publishes (England only) data on the number of private law cases started, 
the latest edition of which can be found here: 
https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/leaflets-resources/organisational-material/care-
and-private-law-demand-statistics/private-law-demand-statistics.aspx 
Figure 7 compares both Cafcass and MoJ figures and shows that the two 
trends are very similar. For the last two years MoJ figures have been, on 
average, 10% higher. 
Figure 7: Comparison of the number of private law cases received, as 
recorded by Cafcass and the MoJ (England only), January to March 
2012 to October to December 2016 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
13 
This is mostly due to Cafcass only receiving Section 8 cases2 from the 
courts. Other differences between the two data sets include the following: 
 Section 8 cases where all of the issues are dealt with on the day (called 
'urgent without notice' applications) should not be sent to Cafcass. 
 Section 8 cases which are not listed within the Private Law Programme 
(PLP) and do not have a first hearing dispute resolution appointment 
(FHDRA) should also not be sent to Cafcass. 
 Certain non-section 8 cases can be sent to Cafcass if the subject child 
is a party to ongoing proceedings (and a Cafcass officer has been 
appointed as the children’s guardian) or the court is directed to do so 
by a judge or legal advisor. 
This accounts for the discrepancy between the two data sets which cannot 
be accurately matched as it is impossible to identify the various situations 
described above from administrative data sources (particularly the 'urgent 
without notice' applications). 
Timeliness of private law cases 
As shown in Figure 2 and Table 7, from the middle of 2012 to the end of 
March 2014 the average time to first definitive disposal had been on a slight 
upward trend for private law cases overall. This trend then reversed with the 
average time to first disposal at 14.3 weeks for 2015 overall, down 2.5 
weeks from the 2014 overall average, and with a further drop to 13.6 weeks 
for 2016.  
 
 
 
 
 
                                            
2 Under the Children Act 1989, Section 8 orders refer to child arrangement orders (contact 
and residence), prohibited steps and specific issue orders.  

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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Section 4 - Legal representation 
Figures on the legal representation of parties in family-related court cases 
are shown in Table 7. This gives the number of disposals made during each 
quarter and the average duration between application and first substantive 
disposal, for divorce, public law, private law, adoption and domestic violence 
cases, according to whether the applicant(s), respondent(s), both or neither 
had legal representation during the case. A further breakdown of Table 7 by 
region is published in the CSV files that accompany this publication. 
The legal representation status reflects whether the applicant/respondent's 
legal representative has been recorded or left blank within FamilyMan, the 
family court case management system. A blank field is assumed to indicate 
that no legal representation has been used. Table 7 suggests that for over 
half of divorce cases not involving financial remedies disposed, neither party 
had legal representation. However, further analysis shows that these were 
uncontested cases and almost all of them did not have a single hearing. 
Therefore, parties recorded as without legal representation are not 
necessarily self-representing litigants in person. 
Therefore, to give a more appropriate proxy for litigants in person, a new 
table (Table 8) has been added which shows the number of parties in cases 
with at least one hearing by their legal representation status. So, for 
example, for divorces involving financial remedy, it can be seen that only a 
small percentage of cases (about 10%) have a hearing, and of those only 
about a third of the parties involved are unrepresented. 
Please note that there has been a revision to the methodology used to 
produce Tables 7 and 8 – specifically to account for the issue in Public law 
cases where applicants would generally be public bodies (mostly local 
authorities) with access to their own legal resources, but who would 
previously have been shown as an ‘unrepresented’ party. This has now 
been amended such that they are now shown as represented parties in the 
above tables, and this has changed the percentage of applicants with legal 
representation in Public law cases with at last one hearing from around 20% 
to 99%. The overall trends seen in mean time to disposal of Public law 
cases by representation type however (table 7) have not changed.  
Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offender Act, 2012 
The implementation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of 
Offenders Act (LASPO) in April 2013 made changes to the scope and 
eligibility of legal aid. From April 2013, legal aid is now only available for 
private family law cases (such as contact or divorce) if there is evidence of 
domestic violence or child abuse and child abduction cases. Legal aid 
remains available for public family law cases (such as adoption).  
The full details of the LASPO Act can be found here: 
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/10/enacted 
The removal of legal aid for many private law cases has resulted in a 
change in the pattern of legal representation, and Figure 8 shows how this 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
15 
has changed over time. Around the time that the LASPO reforms were 
implemented there was a marked increase in the number and proportion of 
cases where neither party were represented, with an equivalent drop in the 
proportion of cases where both parties were represented. In 2016, neither 
the applicant nor respondent had legal representation in 33% of private law 
disposals, an increase of 14 percentage points from 2013. Correspondingly, 
the proportion of disposals where both parties had legal representation 
dropped by 12 percentage points over the same three-year period. 
Figure 8: Proportion of parties in private law cases with legal 
representation, January to March 2011 to October to December 2016 
 
 
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA - formerly the Legal Services Commission) 
collects statistics on those applying for legal aid, and figures on the number 
of applications received and certificates granted by various Family 
categories have been published in their annual and quarterly statistical 
reports, which can be found here: 
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics 
Timeliness of cases by legal representation 
In general, across all case types, cases where either both parties or the 
respondent only had legal representation took longer than those cases 
where only the applicant was represented or where both parties were 
without legal representation. Figure 9 shows the average duration by case 
type in October to December 2016. 
For private law cases, the average time to first disposal started to increase 
during 2013. This rise was driven by increases for all representation groups, 
but particularly in the timeliness of cases where both parties were 
represented (Figure 10). This trend reversed during 2014 and by the start of 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
16 
2015, the average time to first disposal had returned to pre-2013 levels. 
Timeliness in 2016 for private law cases overall was nearly 1 week lower 
than for 2015. This was primarily due to drops in timeliness for ‘both 
applicant and respondent’ and ‘applicant only’ groups. 
Figure 9: Timeliness of cases according to legal representation of 
participants, by case type, October to December 2016 
 
 
Figure 10: Average time to first disposal in private law cases, January 
to March 2011 to October to December 2016 
 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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Section 5 - Matrimonial matters  
Table 9 provides the numbers of petitions and decrees granted for divorce, 
annulment and judicial separation in England and Wales. The National CSV 
file and the data visualisation tool that accompanies this publication provide 
additional information on matrimonial proceedings such as gender of 
petitioner and whether children were involved or not. 
Eleven centralised divorce centres were introduced throughout 2014 and 
2015 in England and Wales, with the vast majority of uncontested decree 
nisi applications being considered by legal advisers (rather than district 
judges) at those centres. This should be noted when looking at the relevant 
figures given in the DFJ and Region level CSV file. 
There were 114,121 petitions in 2016, continuing level trend over recent 
years. Over 99% of petitions filed for matrimonial proceedings are for 
divorce. There are very small numbers for annulments and judicial 
separations. 
There were 114,170 decrees nisi and 108,290 decrees absolutes granted in 
2016, an increase of 15% and 6% respectively compared to 2015. These 
increases are primarily due to the backlog following the creation of the new 
centralised divorce centre for London and the South East Region during 
2015, and its subsequent clearance of cases during 2016. 
Divorce case progression can be found in Table 10, which shows the 
number of divorce cases commencing in each year since 2003 and in each 
quarter since 2009, together with the proportion of those cases that had 
reached certain stages by the beginning of February 2017 (when the data 
was extracted for producing this bulletin). 
 
 
 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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Figure 11: Percentage of divorce cases started between Q1 2011 to Q4 
2016 reaching decree nisi or decree absolute, by the number of 
quarters since petition 
 
 
Over one-third (34%) of divorce petitions made between 1 January 2011 
and 31 December 2016 reached Decree Nisi in the first quarter after the 
petition was made, and a further third (37%) reached this stage within the 
second quarter. Over half of the petitions reached Decree Absolute within 
three quarters after petition (2% in the first quarter, 35% within 1 to 2 
quarters and 18% within 2 to 3 quarters).  
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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Financial remedy 
During a divorce, a marriage annulment, or a judicial separation, or the 
dissolution of a civil partnership, there may still be a need for the court to 
settle disputes over money or property. The court can make a financial 
remedy order, formerly known as ‘ancillary relief’. These orders include 
dealing with the arrangements for the sale or transfer of property, 
maintenance payments, a lump sum payment or the sharing of a pension. 
Orders for financial provision other than for financial remedy are not 
dependent upon divorce proceedings and may be made for children. 
There were 46,588 financial remedy applications in 2016, a 10% increase 
compared to the previous two years (Table 12). 
In 2016, there were 40,631 financial remedy disposals, a 5% increase from 
the previous year. In 2016, 70% of disposals were uncontested, 5 
percentage points higher than the previous two years, with 21% initially 
contested and 9% were contested throughout. 
As shown in Figure 12, in October to December 2016, property adjustment 
orders and lump sum orders together accounted for more than half (52%) of 
the total financial remedy disposal types (Table 13).  
Figure 12: Financial remedy disposal types, October to December 2016 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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Section 6 - Domestic violence remedy orders 
A range of people can apply to the court for a domestic violence remedy 
order: spouses, cohabitants, ex-cohabitants, those who live or have lived in 
the same household (other than by reason of one of them being the other’s 
employee, tenant, lodger or boarder), certain relatives (for example, 
parents, grandparents, in-laws, brothers, sisters), and those who have 
agreed to marry one another. 
Two types of order can be granted:  
 a non-molestation order, which can either prohibit particular 
behaviour or general molestation by someone who has previously 
been violent towards the applicant and/or any relevant children, 
 an occupation order, which can define or regulate rights of 
occupation of the home by the parties involved. 
Figure 13: Applications for domestic violence remedy orders, January 
to March 2009 to October to December 2016 
 
As shown in Figure 13, since 2011 the number of occupation applications 
have remained fairly steady, whilst for non-molestation applications there 
was a general increasing trend until the end of 2013. Since then the trend 
over the last few years, although fluctuating on a quarterly basis has 
remained fairly stable (Table 14). 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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Section 7 - Forced Marriage Protection Orders 
The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 came into force on 25 
November 2008. The Act amended Part IV of the Family Law Act to enable 
15 designated courts to make Forced Marriage Protection Orders (FMPOs) 
to prevent forced marriages from occurring and to offer protection to victims 
who might have already been forced into a marriage.  
The number of applications and orders made for FMPOs is very small. 
Consequently, as Figure 14 shows, numbers fluctuate each quarter but 
overall both have shown an upward trend since their introduction in 2008, 
with 279 applications and 229 orders made in 2016 (Table 15).  The Anti-
social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 came into force on 16 June 
2014 and made it an offence to force a person to marry against their will, or 
to breach a FMPO. As a result, courts no longer need to attach a power of 
arrest to an FMPO. 
Figure 14: Applications and disposals of Forced Marriage Protection 
Orders, November 2008 to October to December 2016 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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Section 8 – Female Genital Mutilation Protection 
Orders 
Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders (FGMPOs) are intended to 
safeguard girls who are at risk of FGM at home or abroad, or who are 
survivors. 
FGMPOs came into effect on 17 July 2015, and quarterly figures for these 
orders are presented in this bulletin (Table 16). In total, there have been 121 
applications and 94 orders made since their introduction up to the end of 
2016. 
 
  
 
 
 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
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Section 9 - Adoptions 
An adoption order made by a court eradicates the rights, duties and 
obligations of the natural parents or guardian and transfers them to the 
adopters. On adoption, the child becomes for virtually all purposes in law 
the child of its adoptive parents. Most adoptions in the UK are ‘standard’ 
adoptions. Data is also provided on other adoptions, which include foreign 
adoptions, convention adoptions and standard adoptions that include a 
foreign element. An adoption order is preceded by a placement order which 
allows a local authority to place a child with prospective adopters, unless 
parental consent has been given for the placement.  
There was a long-term rise in adoption applications and orders from 2011 
until mid-2014, with applications and orders 40% higher for 2014 overall 
compared to 2011 (Figure 15). Numbers have since been declining, with 
5,868 applications for an adoption order made in 2016 (from a peak of 6,830 
in 2014) and 5,825 adoption orders issued (from a peak of 6,752 in 2014). 
Two-thirds of adoption orders (68%) were issued in 2016 to male/female 
couples, 16% to sole applicants, 9% to same-sex couples and a further 7% 
to step-parents (Table 18). Figures on the sex and age band of adopted 
children can be found in Table 18 and timeliness figures can be found in 
Table 7. A wider range of breakdowns for adoption applications and orders, 
by for example type of order, can be produced from the accompanying data 
visualisation tool or CSV file. 
Figure 15: Adoption orders issued, by adopter, January to March 2011 
to October to December 2016 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
24 
Section 10 – The Mental Capacity Act 
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides a statutory framework to empower 
and protect vulnerable people who are not able to make their own decisions. 
The Act makes it clear who can take decisions, in which situations, and how 
they should go about this. It enables people to plan ahead for a time when 
they may lose capacity.  
When the Mental Capacity Act 2005 came into force on 1 October 2007, the 
role and function of the Court of Protection (CoP) changed, and in addition, 
the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) was established. The OPG, an 
executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, supports the Public Guardian in 
registering Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPA), Lasting Powers of Attorney 
(LPA) and supervising Court of Protection appointed Deputies.  
For more information on the roles of these specialised courts please see A 
Guide to Family Court Statistics that is published alongside this 
publication.  
Court of Protection 
In 2016, there were 29,711 applications made under the Mental Capacity 
Act 2005, up 11% on 2015 and continuing the long term upward trend. The 
majority of these (54%) related to applications for appointment of a property 
and affairs deputy (Table 19). 
Following the introduction of new forms in July 2015, applicants must make 
separate applications for ‘property and affairs’ and ‘personal welfare’. This is 
why there were almost no ‘hybrid deputy’ applications in 2016, and explains 
the increase in the number of applications for appointment of a personal 
welfare deputy, which more than doubled between 2015 and 2016 (from 
446 to 1,014). 
There were 26,494 orders made under the MCA in 2016, which in contrast 
to the number of applications was a drop of 10% from 2015. Half of the 
orders in 2016 related to the appointment of a deputy for property and 
affairs (Table 20). 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
25 
Figure 16: Applications and orders made under the Mental Capacity 
Act, January to March 2008 to October to December 2016 
 
Applications relating to deprivation of liberty increased from 109 in 2013 to 
525 in 2014 to 1,497 in 2015. Latest figures show another large increase, 
more than doubling to 3,143 applications in 2016. Similarly, orders made for 
deprivation of liberty increased between 2015 and 2016, more than doubling 
from 644 to 1,366. 
These increases follow the Supreme Court decision on 19 March 20143 
whereby it was considered a person could be deprived of their liberty in their 
own home, sheltered accommodation etc., and not just the nursing homes 
and hospitals which were previously covered. Of the 3,143 applications in 
2016, 2,175 (69%) came from a Local Authority, 799 (25%) from solicitors 
and 27 (5%) from others including clinical commission groups, other 
professionals or applicants in person. In Re X and others [2014] 
EWCOP254, the Court of Protection set out a new streamlined process to 
enable court to deal with deprivation of liberty cases in a timely and just 
fashion. Half of applications for deprivation of liberty were made under this 
process.     
NHS Digital publishes official statistics on the Mental Capacity Act 2005, 
Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards data collection5. This includes any 
application to local authorities reported to NHS Digital that was received, 
processed or considered to be “active” in any way during the year. 
                                            
3 P v Cheshire West and Chester Council and P and Q v Surrey County Council  [2014] 
UKSC 19 
4 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCOP/2014/25.html  
5http://digital.nhs.uk/searchcatalogue?q=title%3A%22Mental+Capacity+Act+2005%2C+De
privation+of+Liberty+Safeguards+Assessments%22+%21Bi-
annual+%21analysis&area=&size=10&sort=Relevance  

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
26 
Office of the Public Guardian 
The number of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) received has been 
increasing considerably and steadily since 2008, from 52,494 to 590,593 in 
2016, as shown in Figure 17 and Table 21. The additional increase seen in 
recent years is largely due to increased publicity and new online forms 
which were introduced in July 2015 to make it simpler and faster to apply for 
LPAs. 
In contrast, the number of Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPAs) received 
has been falling, from 20,506 in 2008 to 12,557 in 2016. Over the same 
period, the number of Deputyships6 appointed has remained fairly stable, 
with 12,436 in 2016. 
Figure 17: Powers of attorney received, January to March 2008 to 
October to December 2016 
 
 
Of all LPAs registered at the end of December 2016, 38% were for males – 
see Table 22. The most common age group applying for an LPA is 81-90 
years, as shown in Figure 18 below.  
 
 
                                            
6 Deputyships - A Deputy is legally responsible for acting and making decisions on behalf of 
a person who lacks capacity to make decisions for themselves. The Deputy order sets out 
specific powers in relation to the person who lacks capacity. 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
27 
Figure 18: Age of LPA donors registered as at end of December 2016 
 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
28 
Section 11 – The Probate Service 
When a person dies, somebody has to deal with their estate (money, 
property and possessions) by collecting it together, paying any debts and 
distributing the remainder to those who are entitled to receive it. The 
Probate Service gives a person or persons the authority to do this by issuing 
a document called a Grant of Representation7.  
In 2016, 254,738 grants of representation were issued (Table 24). Grants of 
representation are known as either: 
 Probate (when the deceased person left a valid will and an executor is 
acting). These made up 79% of grants in 2016.  
 Letters of administration with will (when a person has left a valid will but 
no executor is acting). These made up 6% of grants in 2016. 
 Letters of administration (usually when there is no valid will). These 
made up 15% of grants in 2016. 
These different types of grants of representation appoint people known as 
personal representatives to administer the deceased person’s estate.  
Over a quarter of a million grants of representation were issued in 2016, 
down 7% on the previous year (Table 24). As Figure 19 shows, this was 
primarily driven by a fall in the number of probate grants, which account for 
more than three-quarters of grants made.  
Overall for 2016, 63% of the applications were made by solicitors and 37% 
were personal applications.  
 
 
 
                                            
7 http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/probate/gor  

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
29 
Figure 19: Grants of representation issued by the Probate Service, 
2007 to 2015
 
 
Current structure of the Probate Service 
The Probate Service is currently made up of: 
 The Principal Registry in London 
 11 District Probate Registries 
 18 Probate Sub-Registries situated throughout England and Wales 
In 2016, 6% of grants were issued by the Principal Registry and 94% by 
District Registries and Sub-Registries.  
When a probate case is contested, The Chancery Division of the High Court 
deals with the matter. See the Guide to Court and Administrative Justice 
Statistics for more information on The Chancery Division. In 2016, there 
were 77 contested probate cases, down from the 164 for 2015 and the 
lowest number since 2006 (73 cases). 
 

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: Annual 2016 including October to December 2016 
 
30 
Contacts 
Press enquiries on the contents of this bulletin should be directed to the 
MoJ or HMCTS press offices: 
Sebastian Walters 
Tel: xx-xxxx-xxxx 
Email: xxx@xxx.xx  
Camilla Marshall 
Tel: xx-xxxx-xxxx 
Email: xxx@xxx.xx  
Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to the Justice 
Statistics Analytical Services division of the MoJ: 
Bridgette Miles 
 
Ministry of Justice 
102 Petty France 
London 
SW1H 9AJ 
Tel: xx-xxxx-xxxx 
Email: xxx@xxx.xx 
General enquiries about the statistics work of the MoJ can be emailed to 
xxx@xxx.xx 
General information about the official statistics system of the UK is available 
from http://statisticsauthority.gov.uk/about-the-authority/uk-statistical-system 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Produced by the Ministry of Justice 
Alternative formats are available on request from 
xxx@xxx.xx