Divorce applications have reached an all-time high in a decade following no-fault legalisation introduced in England and Wales.

There were 33,566 divorce applications from April to June, with a large number of them under the new no-divorce legalisation.

The legalisation outlines that: "a no fault, or no blame divorce is a much more straightforward and amicable approach to separation. As per the no fault divorce process, couples will be able to file for divorce or civil partner dissolution without having to place the blame on their former partner to prove the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage."

The application number has reached an all-time high since the first quarter of 2012 - over 10 years ago - and is up 22% from the same period in 2021.

The law change has introduced a new minimum period of 20 weeks for "meaningful" thought between the submitting of the proceedings and for a conditional order.

Prior to the no-default divorce law, unless adultery, unreasonable behaviour or desertion, could be proven, those who applied had to live separately from their spouse for at least five years in order to get divorced.

The cause for the increase in time frames has been noted as "resourcing issues" which have led to backlogs by the Ministry of Justice. The department stated that they will not be making comment on the promptness of new divorce cases until there have been significant numbers of conditional and final orders, due to the latest mandatory waiting periods.