§ Vera BairdTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs (1) what1092W percentage of the cost of running the small claims track was recovered from the payment of court fees by litigants in the last period for which figures are available; [155383]
(2) what percentage of the costs of the small claims track in Middlesbrough court was recovered from court fees paid by litigants in the last year for which figures are available. [155384]
§ Mr. LeslieThe approximate unit cost to the Court Service of processing a claim from issue of proceedings to judgment at a small-claims hearing in 2002–03 was £527. For the purpose of calculating the unit cost the divisor is the number of claims allocated to the small claims track. In 2002–03 this was 80,496 (England and Wales). The total cost of small claims that are defended is therefore £42,421,392.
The percentage of cost recovered from fees paid by litigants was 103 per cent. This allows for income and cost associated with small claims that did not go to a hearing or were not defended. The cost of the small claims hearing itself, (included in the figure of £527) is based on the average length of a small claims hearing published in Judicial Statistics 2002 (table 4.11).
In 2003 a total of 482 small claims were allocated to track at Middlesbrough county court, indicating a total cost of £254,014. It is impossible to carry out valid comparisons of cost and income at local level. This is because a significant proportion of fee revenue is accounted for centrally at the Claims Production Centre (Northampton). The CPC issues claims on behalf of all county courts in England and Wales.