Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 24
45th Report - Improving family court services for children
Published 12 Sep 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Improving family court services for children All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
There are significant gaps in family justice data. These data gaps include, for example, demographic information on children and their families; data on outcomes for children; and data on the prevalence of domestic abuse in private law cases.56 There are also issues with the quality of family courts data collected. In 2024, HMCTS reviewed approximately 2,000 private law cases that had been open for over 85–90 weeks and found 30% of them had exited the court process and needed to be closed.57 48 Qq 12, 20; C&AG’s Report, para 3.13 49 Q 26 50 Qq 38, 69; C&AG’s Report, para 3.2 51 Q 11 52 Qq 33-35; C&AG’s Report, paras 15, 3.2-3.3 53 Qq 34-35 54 Q 37 55 Qq 33-35 56 Qq 39, 64; C&AG’s Report, para 2.14; IFC0024; IFC0036 57 Q 39; C&AG’s Report, para 2.14 16
From: Public Accounts Committee, 45th Report - Improving family court services for children (HC 883), 12 September 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 12 November 2025).