§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish statistics for each of the divisions of the High Court of Justice and for the county courts indicating the number of (a) legal proceedings commenced; (b) proceedings in which a defence is entered; (c) proceedings set down for trial; and (d) proceedings disposed of by trial.
§ The Lord ChancellorThe Question concerns a matter which has been assigned to the Court Service under the terms of its framework document. I have therefore asked the Chief Executive to respond.
74WALetter to Lord Lester of Herne Hill from the Chief Executive of the Court Service, Mr. M. D. Huebner, dated 19 March 1997.
The Lord Chancellor has asked me to reply to your Question about various statistics relating to each Division of the High Court and the county courts.
The figures set out below are from 1995. The figures for 1996 will be published in June 1997. The number of defences entered is not collected centrally and to provide the information would incur a disproportionate cost.
High Court Commenced Set down for trial Disposed of by trial Chancery Division Chancery 10,942 1,254 924 Bankruptcy 13,490 288 238 Companies Court 17,810 954 829 Queen's Bench Division Queen's Bench 153,624 4,717 4,369 Admiralty1 562 22 3 Commercial Court 2,016 67 22 Official Referees1 1,804 n/k 759 Family Division Children Act 945 2— 2— Adoption 257 2— 2— Probate 248,947 n/k n/k 1 Royal Courts of Justice only. 2 Family matters do not have trials.
County Court Commenced Commenced Plaints entered1 2,445,248 Bankruptcy Petitions 20,414 Companies Winding Up Petitions 13,666 Adoption Applications 5,609 Divorce Petitions 178,196 1 includes default and fixed date actions and actions for possession of land. Disposals (Figures are weighted estimates based on two months sample data and have been rounded).
Set down for trial Disposed of by trial Debt 3,860 2,020 Negligence: Personal Injury 5,870 4,260 Other 1,580 1,060 Other proceedings 2,480 1,480