HC Deb 01 May 1995 vol 259 c71W
Mr. Redmond

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many cases of divorce have been reported during the last year; and what were the comparable figures in each of the previous four years. [20694]

Mr. John M. Taylor

The question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executive of the Court Service is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked the chief executive to reply direct.

Letter from M. D. Huebner to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 27 April 1995: The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, has asked me to reply to your question about the number of divorces reported during the past five years. The following statistics refer to the number of divorce cases in which a final decree has been made, to end the marriage:

  • 1990: 147080
  • 1991: 147385
  • 1992: 148046
  • 1993: 154062
  • 1994: 1469321
The statistics cover England only. I understand that you have asked separately for information from the Welsh Office. You may like to know that all judicial statistics for England and Wales are provided by the Lord Chancellor's Department. The figures for Wales are as follows:
  • 1990: 8159
  • 1991: 8542
  • 1992: 8633
  • 1993: 8517
  • 1994: 79411
The Welsh Office have been provided with this information and will reply separately to your Question.

1These figures are provisional and therefore liable to revision to take account of late amendments.