Every three months sees the publication of a package of data showing how various elements of the justice system are functioning.

As is often the case, the real benefit of the material issued by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) can be found if you take the time to dig into the statistics.

In the case of the figures relating to family courts (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2025/family-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2025#divorce), several issues are clear.

Firstly, divorces are taking longer. Those which concluded during April and June this year had taken 69 weeks on average from the initial application to securing a final order.

It certainly undermines the myth of the so-called ‘quickie divorce’ often perpetuated by gossip columns and tabloid newspapers.

However, there are two rather more positive elements of the MoJ bulletin.

Firstly, the number of financial remedy applications and completed cases are both substantially up – by 10 and 11 per cent respectively.

Secondly, private children’s proceedings are being finalised three weeks quicker than at this time last year.

I believe that one factor in the latter is a pilot project known as Pathfinder, which aims to reduce the time taken to resolve cases involving children.

Earlier this year, the Justice Minister Lord Ponsonby outlined how the Government was committed to an expansion of the scheme to avoid what he described as “the potentially traumatising impact of proceedings on families” (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e277f770323a45fe6a7067/pathfinder-programme-update.pdf).

The scheme fosters a more efficient sharing of relevant information between agencies to allow decisions to be taken more quickly and with fewer hearings.

The initiative is only restricted to certain parts of the UK, including various parts of Wales, the Midlands and Yorkshire, but still represents progress and is likely to be even more helpful and more visible in terms of the number of cases settled as it is rolled out to more parts of the country.

Likewise, a change in the rules in May last year related to financial remedy proceedings is, I believe, making its presence felt on the MoJ statistics.

Practice Direction 9A set out what “key steps” family courts expected parties to take before commencing court proceedings, most notably committing to non-court dispute resolution (NCDR).

The new protocol explained that “unless there are safety concerns or other good reasons not to do so”, the individuals were expected to have attended “at least one form of NCDR”.

Furthermore, a failure to oblige might result in cases being postponed until NCDR had been undertaken and would be taken into account when the court was considering the costs of proceedings – and who should pay them (https://www.justice.gov.uk/documents/fpr-pd-update-no-5-of-2024.pdf).

For those who might previously have been inclined to deliberately drag their heels during the divorce process as a way of trying to exert control over their exes, the prospect of being penalised by having a cost order made against them has become a powerful incentive to speed things up.

I don’t think that it is just the deterrent effect of the new practice direction – the stick, if you like – which is becoming apparent in the MoJ figures.

As someone who has handled many hundreds of mediations, including an increasing number of high value cases, I know very well that people often don’t realise its merits until they are involved.

They realise that it is not only a less adversarial and stressful environment in which to reach agreement but more convenient, quicker and less costly than court proceedings.

In some instances, people simply haven’t been made aware of how helpful mediation can be and once informed become very much committed to seeing it through.

I should point out that some things are beyond the control of divorcing couples and may have affected the data issued by the MoJ in recent days.

One issue is the time taken to provide spouses who have public sector pensions with calculations as to their value.

In March, it emerged that hundreds of teachers were preparing to take legal action against the Government for the delays (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y08v0n2jyo).

When both spouses are willing to make the full and frank financial disclosure which is a legal requirement but one party is unable to do so, it can mean that divorce takes far longer than anyone wants.

Such difficulties are worth bearing in mind when trying to resolve financial matters or there is a problem relating to the care of a child which needs a legal resolution.

Court and procedural delays can happen, so the realisation that, in NCDR, there is a way of expediting some matters can be a very good experience and one well worth exploring.