Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Thousands of children's family law cases persist beyond 100-week duration.
Conclusion
In December 2024, there were still over 4,000 children involved in public and private law proceedings which had been open for over 100 weeks.14 MoJ told us that by the end of March 2025, the number of those waiting for over 100 weeks had reduced by 48% for public law and 46% for private law, but did not specify compared to when. MoJ and HMCTS told us that reducing long-running cases over 100 weeks will continue to be a priority 8 C&AG’s Report, paras 1.6, 1.9, Figure 5 9 Qq 11, 13; C&AG’s Report, para 1.7 10 C&AG’s Report, para 1.9 11 Qq 12, 16 12 Q 28 13 Qq 12, 16, 20 14 Qq 13, 19; C&AG’s Report, para 1.9 10 indicator for them going forward, but they recognised there is more to do. MoJ said that in reality it will always be challenging to ensure that there are no 100-week-plus cases in the system.15