The national deprivation of liberty (DoLs) court, launched in July 2022 as a 12-month pilot and based at the Royal Courts of Justice, deals with all new applications seeking authorisation to deprive children of their liberty under the inherent jurisdiction. Nuffield FJO is collecting and publishing data on these applications.
Published today is a briefing highlighting high-level data trends for the first four months of the court.
In the first four months of the national deprivation of liberty court, there have been 459 applications (14 are ‘repeat’ applications, where the LA has issued a new application form within a case.)
111 in October
119 in September
136 in August
101 in July
The applications were made by 120 different local authorities and seven hospital or mental health trusts.
This briefing provides an indication of the volume of applications being issued by the national DoLs court. In the early months of the court, caution should be exercised in interpreting and generalising findings. As data collection continues, we will be able to build a better picture about how the use of deprivation of liberty applications varies across the country.
