HL Deb 20 December 1995 vol 567 cc153-4WA
Lord Simon of Glaisdale

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they can state, on average, how many children of parents divorced in any particular year are still under the age of 16 years by the end of the following year.

The Lord Chancellor

The information requested is not available. However, set out below the numbers of children aged between 0–4 years; 5–10 years and 11–15 years at the time that their parents petitioned for divorce, for each of the last five years. My noble and learned friend will appreciate that all those children in the first two groups will still be under 16 after a year, but that some of those in the third group will have reached their 16th birthday within that time.

Age of children of couples petitioning for divorce
Age/year 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994
0–4 50,495 52,738 54,510 55,451 50,210
5–10 64,069 68,074 70,954 75,189 70,935
11–16 38,313 39,872 42,784 45,321 43,689
Total 152,877 160,684 168,428 175,961 164,834

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