Legal Representation: Wales
(asked on 2nd April 2019) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people represented themselves at (a) magistrates and (b) Crown courts in Wales in each of the last five years.
The Department publishes County Court, Family Court and Crown Court figures on defendants or parties with no (or unknown) representation. These data do not represent the number of litigants in person, however, because a party may be without representation for only part of a case. Information on unrepresented defendants in Magistrates’ Courts is not held centrally.
The Ministry of Justice holds data on representation status at (a) first hearing and (b) any hearing for defendants dealt with in the Crown Court, and the latest available data is published here for England and Wales combined: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-annual-january-to-march-2018. Data specifically for Wales is shown in the following tables.
Representation status, at first hearing, of defendants dealt with in the Crown Court, Wales, annually 2014 - 2017
Year | Total number | Representation status at first hearing | |||
Known represention1 | No advocate representation/ unknown2 | ||||
Number | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
2014 | 5,368 | 5,175 | 96% | 193 | 4% |
2015 | 5,677 | 5,433 | 96% | 244 | 4% |
2016 | 4,759 | 4,587 | 96% | 172 | 4% |
2017 | 4,343 | 4,244 | 98% | 99 | 2% |
Representation status, any hearing, of defendants dealt with in the Crown Court, Wales, annually 2014 – 2017
Year | Total number | Representation status at any hearing3 | |||
Known represention4 | No advocate representation/ unknown5 | ||||
Number | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
2014 | 5,368 | 5,351 | 100% | 17 | 0% |
2015 | 5,677 | 5,655 | 100% | 22 | 0% |
2016 | 4,759 | 4,729 | 99% | 30 | 1% |
2017 | 4,343 | 4,313 | 99% | 30 | 1% |
Notes
1) Includes defendants who were known to be represented by an advocate or solicitor at first hearing.
2) Includes defendants who did not have an advocate recorded at the first hearing and defendants whose advocate representation was unknown.
3) These figures do not indicate how many hearings, within a trial, had representation.
4) Includes defendants who were known to be represented by an advocate or solicitor at any hearing.
5) Includes defendants who did not have an advocate recorded at any hearing and defendants whose advocate representation was unknown.