The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published latest information about the number of children subject to applications to deprive them of their liberty under the inherent jurisdiction of the high court (DoL applications.) It shows that 371 individual children were subject to applications to deprive them of their liberty between July to September 2024 in England and Wales.
So far in 2024 there have been 960 applications to deprive children of their liberty under the inherent jurisdiction.
According to MoJ, over the same period (July to September 2024), there were 60 applications for secure accommodation orders to place children in a secure children’s home. There were over 6 times the number of DoLs applications, compared to secure accommodation applications.
This reflects a growing trend where applications for DoL orders – which authorise the deprivation of a child’s liberty in an unregulated secure placement – vastly outnumber applications to place children in registered secure accommodation. There is severe shortage of places in secure children’s homes, with around 50 children waiting for a place on any given day.
Data shows that the majority of children are subject to a DoL order for more than six months, suggesting that these are not short-term measures.
Information about who made the application and where in the country the application came from has not been published by MoJ however it has started to publish information about the legal orders made. It shows that of the 371 cases started from July to September, a first order has been made in 278 cases (74.9%). It is not clear what happened in the other quarter of cases.
Over half of children (57.7%) subject to applications between July and September 2024 were aged between 13-15 years, 30.7% were aged between 16 and 18, and 11.6% were 12 or under. Data previously published by the FJO has shown that the majority of children subject to DoLs orders were 15 and above.
There was an equal gender split (female: 49.6%; male: 50.1%)
MoJ began collecting and publishing data about DoL applications under the inherent jurisdiction in July 2023. Prior to this, children subject to DoL applications did not appear in national administrative data.
The MoJ data release does not tell us why the application was made, the ethnicity of children subject to applications, or whether a DoL order was made.
