CAFCASS

HC Deb 07 September 2004 vol 424 cc1050-1W

Mrs. May

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service officers are in post; and how many posts are vacant. [186992]

Margaret Hodge

I have been asked to reply.

As at 30 June 2004, there were 1,304 officers (practitioners) in post (not including the self-employed). The current number of vacancies for officers (practitioners) stands at 39.

Mrs. May

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many reports were drafted by(a) the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service and (b) predecessor bodies in each of the last five years. [186993]

Margaret Hodge

I have been asked to reply.

Statistics are not available for the period before CAFCASS was established in 2001 as the work was carried out by a range of organisations and authorities, some of which, for example the Probation Service, no longer exist in their previous form. Figures from CAFCASS show numbers of requests for private law reports resulting in written reports:

Requests for private law reports
2001–02 (October 2001 to March 2002)	17,352
2002–03	35,074
2003–04	33,803
2004–05 (April to May only)	5,175
Total number of requests April 2001 to date	91,404

Mrs. May

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the average length of time taken to draft a Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service report has been. [186999]

Margaret Hodge

I have been asked to reply.

There is no 'average length of time' taken by CAFCASS officers to draft reports. However, the number of weeks required to draft a private law report ranges from 10–18 weeks. The length of time may vary from region to region, and also on the scale of officers' workloads and the complexity of individual cases. CAFCASS officers will often seek to agree these times with the courts, on a case-by-case basis.

In Public Law, the Protocol for Judicial Case Management in Public Law Children Act Cases standard is that cases are to be completed by the courts within 40 weeks, though some of these cases can take a year or more. The drafting of reports in these Public Law cases will be undertaken during part of this period.