Statistics for April to June show that the average time for a care or supervision case to reach first disposal was 36 weeks, up three weeks from the same quarter in 2019.
Meanwhile, 34 per cent of cases were disposed of within 26 weeks - down seven percentage points compared with the same period in 2019.
The report also shows that adoption applications were down 35 per cent compared with the equivalent quarter in 2019 while the number of adoption orders made between April and June decreased by 52 per cent.
The MoJ said: “During the initial Covid response, administrative and judicial resource was a significant challenge, resulting in a number of courts suspending operations for a period. This led to unprecedented falls in volumes, and substantial changes to timeliness measures.”
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