Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average (a) daily and (b) annual cost of a trial in the crown court was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The estimated average total cost of a Crown Court sitting day in each of last five financial years is shown in the table below.
The average daily cost of a crown court trial is not separable from average cost of a Crown Court sitting day. However, the full average cost of a trial cannot be reliably quantified from available management information sources.
These costs include all relevant operational costs borne by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), including a proportional share of the cost of operating the court building. However, other HMCTS corporate overheads such as IT and headquarters functions are excluded. Costs borne by other agencies in the criminal justice system (e.g. spending on legal aid, or by the Crown Prosecution Service) are also excluded.
Financial year | Average cost of a Crown Court sitting day (£) |
2018-19 | 2,719 |
2019-20 | 3,215 |
2020-21 | 3,562 |
2021-22 | 3,027 |
2022-23 | 3,036 |
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost of a sitting day in the crown court was for each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The estimated average total cost of a Crown Court sitting day in each of last five financial years is shown in the table below.
The average daily cost of a crown court trial is not separable from average cost of a Crown Court sitting day. However, the full average cost of a trial cannot be reliably quantified from available management information sources.
These costs include all relevant operational costs borne by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), including a proportional share of the cost of operating the court building. However, other HMCTS corporate overheads such as IT and headquarters functions are excluded. Costs borne by other agencies in the criminal justice system (e.g. spending on legal aid, or by the Crown Prosecution Service) are also excluded.
Financial year | Average cost of a Crown Court sitting day (£) |
2018-19 | 2,719 |
2019-20 | 3,215 |
2020-21 | 3,562 |
2021-22 | 3,027 |
2022-23 | 3,036 |
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many early guilty pleas were made in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Early guilty pleas are defined as guilty pleas entered prior to trial. This data is published on a quarterly basis on the Criminal Justice System Delivery Data Dashboard and can be assessed here: Charge to case completion at court - CJS Dashboard (justice.gov.uk).
See below for the annual data for early guilty pleas from the last 5 years:
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2023 to Question 193166 on Magistrates' Courts: ICT, how many and what proportion of the defendants in that data set entered a guilty plea; how many and what proportion of those who entered a plea of not guilty were (a) granted bail or (b) remanded into custody; and what the outcomes were for each of those groups.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs. It is not possible to interrogate the original data set provided under the previous answer so as to provide the specific answers requested.
Defendants may be tried for multiple offences, with different pleas entered for different offences, and those pleas and the defendant’s remand status can change over time. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has commissioned independent research on the experience of litigants during and prior to entering the family court process since April 2013.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has regularly commissioned independent research on the experience of litigants during and prior to entering the family court process since April 2013. Most recently this includes: independent research undertaken as part of the 2020 report on Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases; externally commissioned research exploring The Factors Influencing Users’ Decisions to Bring Cases to the Civil and Family Courts published in 2023; and the Review of the Presumption of Parental Involvement due to be published in early 2024.
Research conducted by, or on behalf of the MoJ, is published on ‘Research and statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)’ according to Government Social Research protocols.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2023 to Question 193166 on Magistrates' Courts: ICT, what the sentencing outcomes were of defendants in that data set who were convicted.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs. It is not possible to interrogate the original data set provided under the previous answer so as to provide the specific answers requested.
Defendants may be tried for multiple offences, with different pleas entered for different offences, and those pleas and the defendant’s remand status can change over time. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will include scope and fees in the review of civil legal aid.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice is currently undertaking a Review of Civil Legal Aid to identify evidence-based options for moving to a more effective, efficient, and sustainable system for legal aid providers and the people who rely on legal aid.
The Review will consider the civil legal aid system in its entirety: how services are procured, how well the current system works for users, how civil legal aid impacts the wider justice system, and whether the civil legal aid system offers a financially viable business option for legal aid providers. It will also consider the overall fee structures of the civil legal aid system. The scope of legal aid is not within the Review’s remit.
In the interim, we are continuing to make improvements across the sector to ensure legal aid is available to those who need it. From 1 August 2023, the scope of legal aid was expanded, enabling people facing the loss of their home to receive early legal advice on housing, debt, and welfare benefits issues as well as representation in court. This means an increase in funding of up to £10m each year.
In addition, we recently laid secondary legislation to bring Special Guardianship Orders brought in private law proceedings within scope of legal aid, injecting a further £13m into family legal aid per year. We have also broadened the evidence requirements for victims of domestic abuse applying for legal aid, making it easier for victims to evidence their claims. This will deliver on our commitments to support victims of domestic abuse and allow special guardians to access legal aid.
Eligibility for legal aid was considered in the Legal Aid Means Test Review. The Ministry of Justice published the Government Response to the Review’s consultation exercise in May 2023, which set out the detailed policy decisions underpinning the new means-testing arrangements. When implemented, we estimate that spending on legal aid will rise by circa £25 million. This will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of his decision not to include (a) eligibility and (b) fees as part of his review of civil legal aid.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice is currently undertaking a Review of Civil Legal Aid to identify evidence-based options for moving to a more effective, efficient, and sustainable system for legal aid providers and the people who rely on legal aid.
The Review will consider the civil legal aid system in its entirety: how services are procured, how well the current system works for users, how civil legal aid impacts the wider justice system, and whether the civil legal aid system offers a financially viable business option for legal aid providers. It will also consider the overall fee structures of the civil legal aid system. The scope of legal aid is not within the Review’s remit.
In the interim, we are continuing to make improvements across the sector to ensure legal aid is available to those who need it. From 1 August 2023, the scope of legal aid was expanded, enabling people facing the loss of their home to receive early legal advice on housing, debt, and welfare benefits issues as well as representation in court. This means an increase in funding of up to £10m each year.
In addition, we recently laid secondary legislation to bring Special Guardianship Orders brought in private law proceedings within scope of legal aid, injecting a further £13m into family legal aid per year. We have also broadened the evidence requirements for victims of domestic abuse applying for legal aid, making it easier for victims to evidence their claims. This will deliver on our commitments to support victims of domestic abuse and allow special guardians to access legal aid.
Eligibility for legal aid was considered in the Legal Aid Means Test Review. The Ministry of Justice published the Government Response to the Review’s consultation exercise in May 2023, which set out the detailed policy decisions underpinning the new means-testing arrangements. When implemented, we estimate that spending on legal aid will rise by circa £25 million. This will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the (a) annual saving to the Legal Aid fund of removing passporting through the means test for those earning more than £500 per month who are in receipt of Universal Credit and (b) additional annual cost to the Legal Aid fund of passporting homeowners in receipt of Universal Credit through the capital assessment part of the means test.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The new legal aid means test will comprise a wide range of closely inter-related policy elements to be delivered simultaneously. This includes introducing a £500 monthly earnings threshold for UC recipients who are currently passported through the income assessment for civil legal aid, as well as limiting the passporting of UC recipients through the civil legal aid capital assessment solely to those who are non-home owners. Taking all these policy elements into account, will lead to additional spending in steady state for civil legal aid of up to £24 million per year. Whilst not all policy elements apply equally to the criminal legal aid scheme, the comparable impact on annual steady state spending for criminal legal aid rises up to £5 million. These ranges assume that all recipients of legacy welfare benefits have been transitioned onto UC. Legal Aid Means Test Review - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many open family cases there are in each Designated Family Judge area for (a) public and (b) private family law; and what proportion of those cases in each area involve litigants in person in (i) 31 March 2011, (ii) 31 March 2016 and (iii) 31 March 2019.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is provided in the data tables below and is taken from HMCTS administrative data systems.
We have not been able to provide figures for 2011 as this data was not recorded centrally before 2014.
Count of the Private and Public Law Open Caseload as at the 31st March 2016 broken down by representative 1,2 | ||||||||
| Public Law3 Open Caseload | Private Law Open Caseload | ||||||
DESIGNATED FAMILY JUDGE AREA | Both Applicant and Respondent were represented | Applicant only represented | Respondent only represented | Neither Applicant nor Respondent Represented | Both Applicant and Respondent were represented | Applicant only represented | Respondent only represented | Neither Applicant nor Respondent Represented |
Birmingham | 188 | 58 | 1 | 9 | 203 | 321 | 124 | 435 |
Blackburn/Lancaster | 264 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 151 | 185 | 78 | 196 |
Bournemouth and Dorset | 114 | 17 | 0 | 2 | 53 | 86 | 41 | 118 |
Brighton | 141 | 41 | 0 | 3 | 90 | 171 | 93 | 283 |
Bristol (A, NS and G) | 194 | 38 | 1 | 0 | 116 | 141 | 90 | 201 |
Carlisle | 75 | 13 | 0 | 3 | 33 | 52 | 20 | 75 |
Central London | 302 | 93 | 6 | 6 | 224 | 375 | 150 | 606 |
Cleveland and South Durham | 167 | 35 | 0 | 2 | 107 | 98 | 45 | 117 |
Coventry | 130 | 21 | 0 | 3 | 106 | 116 | 53 | 171 |
Derby | 101 | 18 | 0 | 1 | 76 | 77 | 51 | 96 |
Devon | 169 | 39 | 0 | 1 | 103 | 127 | 79 | 158 |
East London | 290 | 96 | 0 | 2 | 267 | 379 | 183 | 630 |
Essex and Suffolk | 209 | 66 | 0 | 0 | 150 | 221 | 158 | 337 |
Guildford | 60 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 70 | 67 | 47 | 138 |
Humberside | 124 | 32 | 0 | 2 | 64 | 103 | 53 | 182 |
Leicester | 128 | 27 | 0 | 1 | 87 | 88 | 63 | 146 |
Lincoln | 67 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 73 | 40 | 70 |
Liverpool | 371 | 101 | 1 | 5 | 210 | 263 | 158 | 448 |
Luton | 81 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 47 | 100 | 52 | 158 |
Manchester | 326 | 136 | 1 | 4 | 249 | 321 | 154 | 466 |
Medway and Canterbury | 193 | 51 | 1 | 2 | 59 | 93 | 46 | 220 |
Milton Keynes | 97 | 16 | 0 | 2 | 48 | 63 | 40 | 96 |
North Wales | 87 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 85 | 54 | 60 | 70 |
North Yorkshire | 42 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 64 | 56 | 29 | 85 |
Northampton | 121 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 57 | 48 | 155 |
Northumbria and North Durham | 392 | 77 | 0 | 5 | 191 | 220 | 113 | 270 |
Norwich | 92 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 89 | 38 | 116 |
Nottingham | 129 | 23 | 0 | 2 | 108 | 135 | 102 | 159 |
Peterborough and Cambridge | 109 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 69 | 30 | 101 |
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW) | 154 | 30 | 0 | 1 | 140 | 200 | 110 | 301 |
Reading | 201 | 34 | 0 | 2 | 160 | 211 | 109 | 263 |
Royal Courts of Justice | 25 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 214 | 460 | 36 | 164 |
South East Wales | 211 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 165 | 172 | 110 | 227 |
South Yorkshire | 236 | 47 | 0 | 1 | 134 | 168 | 97 | 264 |
Stoke on Trent | 123 | 28 | 1 | 2 | 101 | 122 | 81 | 161 |
Swansea | 111 | 33 | 1 | 0 | 133 | 87 | 64 | 65 |
Swindon | 54 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 103 | 54 | 145 |
Taunton | 92 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 28 | 43 | 23 | 60 |
Truro | 47 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 46 | 30 | 71 |
Watford | 110 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 76 | 90 | 66 | 170 |
West London | 277 | 74 | 0 | 2 | 208 | 296 | 167 | 424 |
West Yorkshire | 308 | 39 | 0 | 5 | 215 | 296 | 135 | 276 |
Wolverhampton | 213 | 58 | 0 | 0 | 139 | 186 | 67 | 174 |
Worcester | 71 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 68 | 74 | 44 | 86 |
(blank) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Grand Total | 6996 | 1659 | 17 | 77 | 5062 | 6757 | 3431 | 9154 |
Count of the Private and Public Law Open Caseload as at the 31st March 2019 broken down by representative 1,2 | ||||||||
| Public Law3 Open Caseload | Private Law Open Caseload | ||||||
DESIGNATED FAMILY JUDGE AREA | Both Applicant and Respondent were represented | Applicant only represented | Respondent only represented | Neither Applicant nor Respondent Represented | Both Applicant and Respondent were represented | Applicant only represented | Respondent only represented | Neither Applicant nor Respondent Represented |
Birmingham | 181 | 60 | 0 | 4 | 252 | 368 | 162 | 607 |
Blackburn/Lancaster | 338 | 91 | 0 | 0 | 162 | 271 | 152 | 477 |
Bournemouth and Dorset | 83 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 78 | 89 | 63 | 165 |
Brighton | 177 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 134 | 167 | 101 | 339 |
Bristol (A, NS and G) | 225 | 56 | 0 | 0 | 169 | 236 | 170 | 430 |
Carlisle | 89 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 61 | 49 | 32 | 114 |
Central London | 309 | 116 | 0 | 8 | 270 | 406 | 245 | 543 |
Cleveland and South Durham | 240 | 59 | 0 | 6 | 107 | 127 | 75 | 178 |
Coventry | 180 | 40 | 0 | 2 | 115 | 127 | 98 | 239 |
Derby | 246 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 117 | 110 | 81 | 157 |
Devon | 172 | 44 | 0 | 1 | 170 | 192 | 167 | 289 |
East London | 346 | 128 | 0 | 5 | 432 | 594 | 371 | 1068 |
Essex and Suffolk | 223 | 79 | 2 | 4 | 212 | 340 | 218 | 664 |
Guildford | 96 | 43 | 0 | 1 | 106 | 105 | 79 | 291 |
Humberside | 144 | 46 | 2 | 7 | 48 | 122 | 79 | 287 |
Leicester | 132 | 39 | 0 | 5 | 127 | 177 | 105 | 275 |
Lincoln | 98 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 84 | 126 | 72 | 155 |
Liverpool | 418 | 156 | 0 | 5 | 244 | 379 | 245 | 689 |
Luton | 55 | 22 | 0 | 2 | 60 | 91 | 55 | 181 |
Manchester | 466 | 180 | 0 | 6 | 301 | 457 | 261 | 828 |
Medway and Canterbury | 170 | 51 | 1 | 1 | 132 | 166 | 119 | 370 |
Milton Keynes | 109 | 29 | 0 | 1 | 53 | 73 | 43 | 223 |
North Wales | 107 | 29 | 2 | 1 | 91 | 87 | 50 | 93 |
North Yorkshire | 39 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 86 | 114 | 71 | 150 |
Northampton | 123 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 71 | 52 | 193 |
Northumbria and North Durham | 440 | 168 | 1 | 7 | 288 | 377 | 282 | 627 |
Norwich | 141 | 51 | 0 | 0 | 85 | 122 | 82 | 203 |
Nottingham | 165 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 133 | 164 | 112 | 300 |
Peterborough and Cambridge | 127 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 93 | 103 | 75 | 193 |
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW) | 207 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 164 | 237 | 168 | 507 |
Reading | 237 | 33 | 0 | 1 | 192 | 232 | 176 | 441 |
Royal Courts of Justice | 14 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 143 | 390 | 27 | 130 |
South East Wales | 243 | 51 | 0 | 6 | 245 | 257 | 188 | 416 |
South Yorkshire | 337 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 181 | 198 | 160 | 390 |
Stoke on Trent | 194 | 49 | 1 | 0 | 132 | 159 | 89 | 244 |
Swansea | 141 | 18 | 0 | 4 | 225 | 154 | 98 | 144 |
Swindon | 83 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 56 | 81 | 54 | 160 |
Taunton | 63 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 48 | 53 | 116 |
Truro | 56 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 53 | 53 | 114 |
Watford | 85 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 99 | 121 | 84 | 303 |
West London | 346 | 63 | 0 | 1 | 298 | 458 | 265 | 744 |
West Yorkshire | 347 | 123 | 2 | 5 | 309 | 442 | 252 | 539 |
Wolverhampton | 337 | 57 | 1 | 3 | 207 | 240 | 143 | 319 |
Worcester | 58 | 22 | 0 | 2 | 104 | 96 | 59 | 105 |
Grand Total | 8387 | 2233 | 14 | 93 | 6730 | 8976 | 5586 | 15000 |
This is Management Information; the data is taken from a live management information system and can change over time and may differ from previously published data. | ||||||||
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2. A party is considered 'applicant-represented' if at least one applicant has a recorded representative, and likewise for respondents. | ||||||||
3. The majority of Public law applicants are public bodies with access to their own legal resources - however, this legal representation is often not recorded. To address this, we introduced a methodology which assumes that all public body applicants have legal representation. | ||||||||
Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system. | ||||||||