§ Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 1 September 2003, Official Report, column 719W, on CAFCASS, how many private law cases were unallocated (a) less than 10 weeks and (b) more than 10 weeks before a CAFCASS report is filed at court. [131177]
§ Margaret HodgeCAFCASS's target is that at least 95 per cent. of requests in a month should be allocated 10 weeks before a report is filed at court. A benchmark of 10 weeks is used because this is the timescale required for an officer to complete relevant inquiries and meet the deadline for filing the report with the court. It also enables the service to be flexible when dealing with urgent cases that arise with shorter filing dates.
In July 2003, CAFCASS dealt with 3,200 private law cases. Of these, 385 cases were unallocated less than 10 weeks before a report was filed at court. This is 4.7 per cent. of the caseload and achieved the target. 1,236 private law cases were unallocated more than 10 weeks before a report was filed at court.