Ministry of Justice Synthetic Data First Family Court, England and Wales, 2011-2023
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Data First Synthetic Data Project aims to improve engagement with Data First datasets by making synthetic versions of content available to enable more rapid development of research proposals and to thereby enhance the potential for linked administrative data to improve understanding and outcomes across justice systems. The project has led the development of two components: a dataset generation platform and an initial release of lo-fidelity, synthetic data tables. This study includes a synthetically-generated version of the Ministry of Justice Data First Family Court datasets. Synthetic versions of all 43 tables in the MoJ Data First data ecosystem have been created. These versions can be used / joined in the same way as the real datasets. As well as underpinning training, synthetic datasets should enable researchers to explore research questions and to design research proposals prior to submitting these for approval. The code created during this exploration and design process should then enable initial results to be obtained as soon as data access is granted. The Ministry of Justice Data First family court dataset provides data on cases heard by the family court in England and Wales, and the people involved, from 2011, and has been extracted from the FamilyMan management information system, used by His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to manage cases within the family courts (County Courts). Information is included on individual divorce and Family Law Act, adoption, private and public law cases, the people involved as parties to the case (their role and characteristics), key case dates, processes and outcomes. There are three tables for cases, people and events, which can be joined together. A case will usually have multiple people involved (for example an applicant and respondent) and may have many events, (for example hearings, applications and orders made by the court) which are each included as a separate record. These depend on the type of case and its progress. As part of Data First, records have been de-identified and deduplicated, using our probabilistic record linkage package, Splink, so that a unique identifier is assigned to all records believed to relate to the same person, allowing for longitudinal analysis and investigation of repeat appearances. This opens up the potential to address questions on, for example, common transitions between family law case types and patterns associated with repeat use of the family court system. The Ministry of Justice Data First linking dataset can be used in combination with this and other Data First datasets to join up administrative records about people from across justice services to increase understanding around users’ interactions, pathways and outcomes.
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Geographic Coverage:
GB
Resource Type:
dataset
Available in Data Catalogs:
UK Data Service