HC Deb 17 July 2001 vol 372 cc158-9W
Margaret Moran

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many child contact orders resulted in further court action involving(a) violence and (b) death in each of the last five years. [3831]

Ms Rosie Winterton

The Lord Chancellor's Department is not able to collect statistics on events which happen after the court's involvement is concluded. However, officials from this Department are exploring with the Home Office how we can address this information gap.

Margaret Moran

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what analysis her Department carried out on the number of murders of(a) partners and (b) children resulting from child contact orders, as part of her consultation on child contact. [3833]

Ms Rosie Winterton

The consultation exercise on child contact, "Making Contact Work", is being undertaken by the Children Act 1989 sub-committee of the Lord Chancellor's advisory board on family law and is on-going. Information about the number of murders of partners or children where a child contact order is in force is not available. However, officials from this Department are exploring with the Home Office how we can address this information gap.

Margaret Moran

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many child contact orders have resulted in further court action; and what the(a) average and (b) largest number of further court actions was. [3832]

Ms Rosie Winterton

The Lord Chancellor's Department does not routinely collect statistics on all subsequent court actions. However, the Department is conducting a sampling exercise on this area, the results of which will be published in due course.