Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many outstanding (a) Magistrate's court cases and (b) Crown court cases there were in (i) March 2020 and (ii) January 2021.

The volume of outstanding cases in the criminal courts is published routinely. The latest monthly data available for the number of cases outstanding in (a) the magistrates’ courts and (b) in the Crown Court of England and Wales, is November 2020. The table below sets out the outstanding number of cases in March 2020 and November 2020.

Monthly management information (MI) for January 2021 is expected to be available from 11^th March 2020. Weekly MI that covers the period from March 2020 to 27^th December 2020 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmcts-weekly-management-information-during-coronavirus-outbreak

Notes:

1) The management information presented in this table reflects what is recorded on relevant case-management systems on the date of extraction. The case-management systems are continually updated and so the information presented will differ from previously published information.

2) The management information presented is different from the quarterly MOJ official statistics published due to timing and definitional reasons. The official statistics go through a more comprehensive quality assurance and analysis process to ensure quality and coherence.

3) Only criminal cases are included (civil and enforcement cases are excluded). Any cases entered in error have been removed.

4) Figures above include all case offence types. However, MOJ published statistics are filtered to include only the following offence types: Triable-either-way, Indictable Only, Summary Motoring, Summary Non-Motoring, Breaches.