Children's chief calls to scrap court fees (Leeds Liberal Democrats)

Leeds Liberal Democrats <info@leedslibdems.org.uk>

Children's chief calls to scrap court fees

January 11, 2010 12:00 AM

Cllr Stewart Golton, executive board member for children's services at Leeds City Council is calling for the government to scrap court fees to help protect children.

Court fees are paid by councils to cover the cost of care and adoption proceedings. Before May 2008 a standard fee of £150 per case was charged. Since then a new scaled system has been introduced seeing councils paying anywhere between £2,225 to £4,825. Last year this cost the council £300,000. This is set to rise as the number of referrals to social services increases.

The Ministry of Justice last year commissioned a review of court fees which has been carried out by Francis Plowden, a barrister and lay member of the Judicial Appointments Commission.

Cllr Golton (Lib Dem, Rothwell) believes that councils are effectively being punished for trying to keep children safe. He said:

"We sadly have an increasing number of children being referred to social services and many need to be placed in care to ensure they are kept safe.

"The council needs to prioritise frontline child protection services in the face of cuts to our funding by central government. The money we are paying out on fees could be used to pay for more social workers to help protect our children.

"The drastic increases in court fees are acting as a tax on keeping children safe. We are aware of a government commissioned review that has been carried out by Francis Plowden. We are now waiting for this to be made public. Leeds, as well as councils across the country want to know what is taking so long. Why is the government continuing to use council tax money to fund savings in Whitehall instead of social workers? I am calling for the government to publish this report immediately and for court fees to be scrapped as soon as possible."