Thank you for your e-mail of 7 September 2009, in which you asked for the following information from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ):

“The number of complaints that have been received about unlawful practices by judges, social services staff, barristers and CAFCASS lawyers regarding children taken into care by Kent County Council.”

Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Please accept my apology for the unacceptable delay in replying to you.

Firstly, I should explain that I can only consider this request in relation to judges. The Office for Judicial Complaint (OJC) was established as an Associated Office of the Ministry of Justice in April 2006 to support the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice in carrying out their responsibilities for conduct and discipline matters relating to judges. However, those responsibilities only extend to the consideration of personal misconduct by judges, rather than “unlawful practices” in which you are specifically interested. I cannot therefore respond to your request for information about “unlawful practices by judges” because we do not hold that information.

Secondly, in relation to your requests for similar information relating to social services staff, barristers and CAFCASS lawyers I must also confirm that neither this office nor the Ministry of Justice have responsibility for these groups and therefore we do not hold the information that you require. You should direct your enquiry about social services staff to the General Social Care Council Conduct Referrals Team, Myson House, Railway Terrace, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 3HT. For barristers, you should direct your enquiry to www.barstandardsboard.org.uk and for CAFCASS lawyers you should contact [email address].

In relation to the subject matter in which you are interested, it may be helpful if I provide some wider information in relation to concerns about the decisions that judges make when hearing cases. Your particular interest would seem to be in judges who are found to have made either “bad or wrong” decisions in the Family Courts. Findings to that effect could only be made in a higher court through the appeal process. In some circumstances, were such a finding to be made and the appeal court decided that it should criticise the judge in question, that criticism would be brought to the attention of the judge and his/her Presiding Judges. The Presiding Judges would then be responsible for considering and discussing the appeal court's findings and identifying any action that should be taken by the judge to ensure that there is no repetition. As a general rule, such matters would be viewed as relating to the judge's judicial competence and therefore properly the responsibility of the senior judiciary. They would not be referred to the OJC to consider. In very rare cases, it may be that the appeal court's criticism does extend to the personal conduct of a judge but that that would cover behaviour like an aggressive approach to parties in court, inappropriate language etc and not therefore fit your description of “unlawful practices”.

I understand that you can access information about the numbers of successful family case appeals in the Court of Appeal at:

www.justice.gov.uk/publications/judicialandcourtstatistics.htm, although it would not be possible to obtain a breakdown of cases which focuses solely on cases involving children taken into care by Kent County Council.

Information about the overall number of complaints received by the OJC is available in our annual reports on our website at www.judicialcomplaints.co.uk.

As part of our obligations under FOIA the Ministry of Justice has an independent review process. If you are dissatisfied with the response that I have provided, you may write to request an internal review. The internal review will be carried out by someone who did not make the original decision, and they will re-assess how the Department handled the original request.

If you wish to request an internal review, please write or send an e-mail to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the date of this letter, at the following address:

Data Access and Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

Ministry of Justice

6^th floor, Post Point 6.24,

102 Petty France

London SW1H 9AJ

e-mail:[HMCS request email]

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office under Section 50 of the FOIA. You can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at the following address:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Internet: https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx.

Pennie Turrell

Deputy Head of the Office for Judicial Complaints

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