Victory for Leeds as court fees get scrapped
March 17, 2010 12:00 AM
The government has announced they will now scrap controversial child court fees following an independent review published this week.
The fees, which rose from £150 to up to £4,800 a case two years ago, will now be abolished from April 2011. Executive board member for children's services Cllr Stewart Golton raised his concerns about the impact of high court fees with Greg Mulholland, MP for Leeds North West. The issue was then brought to Parliament where Justice Secretary Jack Straw was put under pressure to scrap the fees and release the findings of a review by Francis Plowden.
The review, published this week after some delay, examined council budgets and how decisions were made that led to children being taken into care. The review found that increased fees may have caused some local authorities to look at alternatives to taking children into care and that therefore the fees should be scrapped.
Cllr Golton (Lib Dem, Rothwell) said:
"In Leeds we have never let money be a factor when keeping children safe. We have had to spend an additional £1.5 million over the last two years due to court fees being unnecessarily hiked, this money should have been spent on front line services protecting vulnerable children.
"It is good to see that the government has finally changed their minds."
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