Freedom of information response
Deprivation of Liberty Orders
My request relates to Deprivation of Liberty Orders commonly secured from the High Court or Court of Protection by a local authority in charge of the care of children.
May you please provide me with the number of Deprivation of Liberty orders granted to under 18-year-olds under the council's care:
- Please provide the figures for the following calendar years: 2023, 2022 and 2021
- i.e in 2023, the council successfully obtained 15 DoL orders in relation to under 18 year olds
Please note: if for data protection reasons you are unable to provide the figures broken down by year, please collate the figures over the three-year period.
• - i.e. between January 1st 2021 and 31st December 2023, the council successfully obtained 20 DoL orders for under 18 year olds
Definition: A DoL makes it lawful for a child to be deprived of their liberty. The court authorises the order and any restrictions are set out clearly in the order.
We are unable to provide this number as for at least one year the number was under 5 and this number would have to be suppressed for data protection reasons.
Between January 1st 2021 and 31st December 2023, the council successfully obtained 19 DoL orders for under 18 year olds
We are unable to provide an exact number for question 1 above as:
- There is a low number involved.
- The release of this information could identify individuals which would constitute their personal data under the Data Protection Act
- There is no prior expectation on the part of these individuals that their personal information would be published in the wider public domain under the FOI Act
- Personal data of any other person is exempt under section 40 (2) of the Data Protection Act.
However in the interests of transparency we are able to provide this information to you categorised as fewer than 5 to give you an indication of the figures