Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the agreed service waiting time for HM Courts and Tribunals Service cases are in England; and what proportion of cases met that target in (a) England and (c) Gloucestershire in 2017.

Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) measures performance across all jurisdictions against its operational Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Pages 34-40 of the agency’s Annual Report and Accounts 2017-18, at the link below, sets out those KPIs.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/723069/HMCTS_Annual_Report___Accounts_2017-2018_Final_print_version_.pdf

Page 40 of the Annual Report also provides discrete links to published, official statistics for the criminal, civil and family courts in England and Wales, and tribunals in England, Wales and retained tribunals in Scotland. In some jurisdictions sub-national data are published. Further detail and the links are provided below.

Criminal Court Statistics (annual): January to March 2018

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-annual-january-to-march-2018

Within the main tables figures are published for ‘Summary statistics on hearing times, waiting times, plea rates and juror utilisation in the Crown Court, by region’ (Table AC9).

Timeliness data for Crown and magistrates’ courts (broken down nationally, regionally, and locally) also appear in the ‘Criminal courts timeliness’ document – the sixth document on the GOV.UK link. These data include Gloucestershire.

Civil Justice statistics quarterly: January to March 2018

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/civil-justice-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2018

Table 1.5 of the second document provides the average time to reach trial/hearing in England and Wales. These figures are not broken down by region although data for Gloucester and Cheltenham County Court are available within the timeliness csv file available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/714290/civil-justice-judical-review-data-jan-mar-2018.zip

Family Court Statistics Quarterly: January to March 2018

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2018

In the second document in the link, the following information is published:-

• Table 8: Summary statistics on the timeliness of care proceedings in the Family Court of England and Wales;
• Table 9: Summary statistics on the timeliness of Private law cases from start to final order in the Family Court of England and Wales; and
• Table 10: the number of disposals and average time to first definitive disposal in courts in England and Wales by legal representation of parties and case type.

Underlying data for tables 8 and 10 broken down by region are available within the published csv files:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/720099/Family_Data_2018_Q1.zip

Tribunals and gender recognitions certificates statistics quarterly: January to March 2018

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognitions-certificates-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2018

Figures for timeliness in the three largest tribunals appear in the third document in the link:-

• Table T1: Cumulative percentage of clearances that took place in 2016/17 and 2017/18, by age of case at clearance;
• Table T2: Percentage of clearances that took place in January to March 2018, by age of case at clearance
• Table T3: Percentage of clearances that took place in January to March 2018, by age of case at clearance (with further breakdowns within each jurisdiction within each Tribunal).

The CSV files within the seventh document include the timeliness figures for Social Security & Child Support cases for the period January-March 2018, broken down by venue and benefit type. These data include Gloucester.