Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department holds data on the number of High Court judges that sit as Single Justices of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) for the purposes of determining applications for permission to appeal against conviction and sentence under section 31 of the Criminal Appeals Act 1968.

All High Court judges assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division may be called upon to determine applications for permission to appeal against conviction and sentence under section 31 of the Criminal Appeals Act 1968. There are about 70 High Court judges in the Queen’s Bench Division although the number of these judges that are available to determine these applications may vary from year to year and throughout the year, depending on their workload requirements and other responsibilities.