In July 2022 the President of the Family Division launched the national deprivation of liberty court. Based at the Royal Courts of Justice, it deals with all new applications seeking authorisation to deprive children of their liberty under the inherent jurisdiction and will run for a 12-month pilot phase initially. Nuffield Family Justice Observatory was invited to collect and publish data on these applications.
This briefing highlights high-level data trends during the full 12 months of the court pilot.
How many applications are there each month?
During the 12 months from 4 July 2022 to end of June 2023, the national DoL court issued a total of 1389 applications.
In some cases, a ‘repeat’ application is issued for the same child – for example, to extend or vary an existing order (e.g., if the child moves placement or additional restrictions on their liberty are sought). There have been 147 ‘repeat’ applications or cases that involve the same child.
This means that a total of 1249 children have been subject to DoL applications at the national DoL court since 4 July 2022 (including a very small number of applications for sibling groups).
On average, there have been 117 applications per month, with the highest number of applications issued in August 2022 (136 applications).
In the most recent month, June 2023, there were 98 applications.
The applications were made by 158 different local authorities and 18 other applicants (usually hospital or mental health trusts).
Read the full briefing HERE.
