§ Lord Rawlinson of Ewellasked Her Majesty's Government:
On how many occasions during the past 12 months the Court of Appeal decided (a) final; and (b) interlocutory, appeals when sitting in a division of only two Lords Justices.
§ The Lord ChancellorThe information is not available in the form requested. By Section 54(4) of the Supreme Court Act 1981 and an order made under it, various classes of appeals to the Court of Appeal may be dealt with by courts consisting of two judges; the main classes are interlocutory appeals, appeals from county courts and appeals against the decisions of single Lords Justices under Section 58 of the Supreme Court Act 1981. According to information which has been collected only since the beginning of this year, in the first quarter of this year 207 appeals were heard which could, by or under Section 54, have been dealt with by two-judge courts; of these 168 were heard by two-judge courts and 39 by three-judge courts. It is not possible to say how many of these were interlocutory appeals. In the same period three-judge courts dealt with 110 appeals which could not, except by consent of the parties, have been dealt with by two-judge courts.