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Water Charges

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) whether she has sought the views of Ofwat on the recommendations in Chapter 14 of the Walker Review of water service charges; [680]

(2) what assessment she has made of the merits of applying the recommendations of chapter 14 of the Walker Review of water service charges to South West Water; [681]

(3) if she will consider the introduction of a nationally-funded vulnerability tariff for water customers to protect those areas with exceptionally high household charges. [689]

Richard Benyon: Ministers will examine the conclusions of the Walker review and respond to them in due course.

Meanwhile, as recommended in the Walker review, Ofwat is looking at the specific recommendations outlined in chapter 14 concerning water charges in the south-west. We will consider Ofwat's findings once they are available.

Justice

Care Proceedings

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average time taken to complete court care proceedings was in each local authority area in each year since 2003-04. [225]

Mr Djanogly: The following table shows the average number of weeks from the date an application was lodged to the date an order was made for care and supervision cases in England and Wales. Statistics for 2009-10 are not yet available. Data are presented by HM Courts Service areas, as a local authority area breakdown is not collected centrally and could be obtained only through the inspection of individual case files at disproportionate cost. Data are provided for county courts from 2003-04 to 2008-09. For Family Proceedings Courts data are only available for 2008-09 based on the same geographical areas. Completed cases are counted by child for the Family Proceedings Courts and by orders made for the county courts.

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Average number of weeks from application to order for care and supervision cases in England and Wales
HMCS area	County courts						Family Proceedings Courts
	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2008-09
Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, and Gloucestershire	53	55	54	58	62	57	44
Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Thames Valley	50	62	52	48	51	58	44
Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk	54	47	46	47	51	54	44
Cheshire and Merseyside	51	51	56	55	58	57	56
Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria	56	56	44	48	57	59	46
Cumbria and Lancashire	48	44	46	51	53	61	44
Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, and Wiltshire	59	54	50	50	58	54	43
East Midlands	59	51	50	48	48	50	44
Greater Manchester	53	51	51	55	57	59	39
Humber and South Yorkshire	48	44	42	41	45	46	39
Kent, Surrey and Sussex	60	56	55	51	57	59	47
London Civil and Family	42	67	62	56	66	65	50
Mid and West Wales	54	53	47	52	53	47	45
North and West Yorkshire	49	41	42	49	48	53	40
North Wales	59	60	56	62	51	58	38
South East Wales	52	49	48	51	60	59	50
Staffordshire and West Mercia	65	58	50	47	48	54	47
West Midlands and Warwickshire	69	67	59	57	63	64	49
National total	55	53	51	52	56	57	45
Notes: 1. The data are taken from the HMCS FamilyMan System and Family Case Tracker. 2. The figures cover cases only where a care order or a supervision order was made. The figures do not include include other care and supervision disposals (e.g order refused, order of no order) and do not include other order types (e.g. emergency protection, secure accommodation). 3. The figures reflect the mean number of weeks from application to order. This means that the numbers of weeks taken for each order have been added up and the total has then been divided by the number of orders. 4. The figures count the number of care and supervision orders disposed in each year. 5. Figures for FPCs prior to 2008-09 are unavailable on the same geographical areas.

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many care proceedings cases in each local authority area are currently open in the family courts; how many were open in each of the last five years; and how many have reached a conclusion (a) in 2010 to date and (b) each of the last five years. [226]

Mr Djanogly: Table 1 shows the number of care and supervision cases outstanding as at the end of December in each year from 2005 to 2009 in the Family Proceedings Courts and County Courts of England and Wales. Data are presented by HM Courts Service areas as a local authority area breakdown is not collected centrally and could be obtained only through the inspection of individual case files at disproportionate cost.

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Table 1
	Total number of care and supervision outstanding cases in the Family Proceedings Court					Total number of care and supervision outstanding cases in the County Courts
	December					December
HMCS area	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Avon and Somerset Devon and Cornwall, and Gloucestershire	342	350	348	342	370	260	303	275	310	389
Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Thames Valley	227	187	216	227	301	188	221	175	179	320
Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk	282	264	372	282	371	273	236	241	233	286
Cheshire and Merseyside	126	225	210	126	253	240	300	248	261	356
Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria	484	642	636	484	533	198	270	264	235	317
Cumbria and Lancashire	82	115	113	82	101	185	198	218	200	297
Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight and Wiltshire	162	154	206	162	215	160	151	173	165	233
East Midlands	395	444	367	395	560	164	176	176	214	287
Greater Manchester	133	174	140	133	295	361	378	394	353	547
Humber and South Yorkshire	166	183	188	166	201	252	265	239	245	335
Kent Surrey and Sussex	325	340	364	325	512	256	260	287	245	340
London Civil and Family	1,017	1,020	888	1,017	1,426	850	733	724	561	758
Mid and West Wales	94	106	97	94	168	67	43	40	53	115
North and West Yorkshire	185	169	293	185	409	229	258	240	225	294
North Wales	16	25	30	16	57	57	77	67	52	80
South East Wales	157	205	162	157	260	136	133	122	116	156
Staffordshire and West Mercia	152	217	219	152	274	104	115	88	88	148
West Midlands and Warwickshire	303	320	332	303	966	391	340	342	294	464
National total	4,648	5,140	5,181	4,648	7,272	4,371	4,457	4,313	4,029	5,722
Notes: 1. The data are taken from the HMCS FamilyMan System and Family Case Tracker. 2. The figures relate to the new HMCS areas. 3. The total number of outstanding cases show the total number of care and supervisions cases open at the end of December each year.

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