As the Deputy may be aware, the High Court has jurisdiction in wards of court matters and management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in exercising its functions under the Courts Service Act 1998.
The Deputy will also be aware that when a person is taken into Wardship, the President of the High Court appoints a committee (usually one person, in most cases, a family member) to deal with the ward's property. In order to be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had enquiries made and the Courts Service has informed me that currently individual statements in regard to funds held in court on behalf of wards of court are provided on request to the respective committees of the wards of court. The Wards of Court office is working to enable statements to be provided automatically to the committees of wards of court which it hopes to be able to commence during the third quarter of 2017. These statements will be high level reports on the funds in court and their performance and, if more detailed reports are required, they can be made available on request.
The Courts Service has also informed me that the Wards of Court office has not received any complaints about the absence of transparency and accountability in the current system on the statements that are issued following requests, but the office has received a small number of complaints about the inability to generate automated statements to committees. Additionally, the office has received representations from relatives of wards who are not committees of a ward seeking statements, but such requests cannot be granted as this would be a breach of confidentiality.
My Department has received complaints from the representatives of wards of court in relation to a variety of issues in the current system and these are addressed on a case by case basis by the Courts Service.
