HC Deb 16 February 1996 vol 271 cc718-9W
Mr. Gapes

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many parents with care have been imprisoned for contempt of court following non-compliance with a contact order made under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 in each year since 1991. [14848]

Mr. Jonathan Evans

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

Letter from M. D. Huebner to Mr. Mike Gapes, dated 15 February 1996: The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, has asked me to reply to the above Question about the number of parents with care imprisoned for contempt of court. This information is not collected centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Gapes

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many contact orders have been made under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 where the presiding judge has been aware that one parent has been charged with, or convicted of, assaulting the other parent. [14842]

Mr. Evans

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. Mike Gapes, dated 15 February, 1996: The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, has asked me to reply to the above Question about the number of Children Act contact orders made. Between October 1991, the date on which the Children Act came into force, and September 1995, the latest date for which figures are available, 106,911 contact orders were made under section 8 of the Act. It is not possible to identify with certainty the number of cases which involved a parent who had been charged with, or convicted of, assault and the task of extracting what information might be available would be disproportionately costly in view of the volume of cases.

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