Number of child welfare hearings attended by the Minister for Victims and Community Safety and Civil Servants: FOI release

Information requested

• 'The number of Scottish court cases in which Section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 has been explicitly enforced or relied upon by the court in respect of delay reduction, disaggregated by sheriff court and Court of Session, for each of the last five financial years for which data are held'; and
• 'The number of child welfare hearings attended by [the Minister for Victims and Community Safety] personally, and by officials within [the Minister's] portfolio, in each of the last five financial years'.

As noted in the Acknowledgement Letter of 19 February 2026, 'officials within [the Minister's] portfolio' has been interpreted as Civil Servants who work on policy relating to child welfare hearings, which are held in private family law cases under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

Response

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance, the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

You asked for the ‘number of Scottish court cases in which Section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 has been explicitly enforced or relied upon by the court in respect of delay reduction, disaggregated by sheriff court and Court of Session, for each of the last five financial years for which data are held’.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested in this part of your ask.

The lack of civil justice data in child contact proceedings more broadly is something that has been acknowledged by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research in their 2023 research paper on the interface between criminal and civil courts in the context of domestic abuse (see section 7.8), which was grant funded by the Scottish Government.

It is open to you to contact the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS), who may or may not be able to assist you with this ask. The SCTS support the operation of the courts and do collect some data on court cases. You can find information about making a request under FOISA to the SCTS on their website or by emailing foi@scotcourts.gov.uk.

You asked for the ‘number of child welfare hearings attended by [the Minister for Victims and Community Safety] personally, and by officials within [the Minister's] portfolio, in each of the last five financial years’. Child welfare hearings are held in private family law cases under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

The answer to this part of your request is none.

Please note that your request was interpreted as asking for this information about individuals in their professional Scottish Government roles. No search was conducted as to whether or not the Minister or Civil Servants working in policy areas that form a part of her portfolio have attended a child welfare hearing in a private capacity. That would be personal information which we would not be obliged to make public.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.