Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has undertaken an assessment of the number of sitting hours courts have lost as a result of people deciding to represent themselves in court.

The Department has not undertaken such an assessment.

Unrepresented parties have always been a feature of the civil and family justice system. Since 2015, the Government has invested £5 million of funding to support litigants in person through a range of measures designed to provide additional information, support and guidance.