Accredited official statistics

Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly: April to June 2024

Published 5 September 2024

Applies to England and Wales

1. Main Points

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Decrease in County Court claims, driven mostly by money claims	Compared to the same period in 2023, County Court claims from April to June 2024 were down 1% to 414,000. Of these, 342,000 (83%) were money claims (down 3%).
Damages claims were up 5% to 23,000	The increase in damages claims was driven by a rise in personal injury claims (up 18% to 16,000) compared to the same quarter in 2023.
The number of claims defended increased compared to 2023, while the number of trials decreased	There were 64,000 claims defended (up 4%) and 12,000 claims that went to trial in April to June 2024 (down 11%) compared to the same quarter in 2023.
Mean time taken from claim to hearing continues to rise for multi/fast track claims	The mean time taken for small claims to go to trial was 50.6 weeks, 2.0 weeks less than the same period in 2023. The mean time taken for multi/fast track claims to go to trial increased by 1.2 weeks, to 79.3 weeks, over the same period.
Judgments and default judgments were both down 14%	Judgments were down 14% (to 238,000) in April to June 2024, compared to the same period in 2023; with 92% of these being default judgments.
Enforcement applications rose to 13,000 whilst orders fell to 9,200	Enforcement applications were up 5%, while enforcement orders were down 2% when compared to the same quarter in 2023.
Warrants issued decreased to 63,000	Warrants issued were down 32% when compared to the same quarter in 2023.
850 judicial review applications	There were 850 applications for Judicial Reviews in Q2 2024, up 40% on Q2 2023. Of the 140 cases in 2024 Q2 that have so far reached the permission stage, 17 (12%) were found to be ‘totally without merit’.
There were six applications for interim privacy injunction proceedings in the first half of 2024	There were four proceedings on whether to continue or amend an interim injunction, and one proceeding on whether to issue a final permanent injunction.

This publication gives civil county court and judicial review statistics for the latest quarter (April to June 2024), compared to the same quarter in 2023. Should users wish to compare against earlier time periods, they can do so using the accompanying statistical tables. This quarter’s publication also includes data on Privacy Injunctions considered during the first half of 2024. For more details, please see the supporting document.

Statistics on the Business and Property Court for England and Wales have also been published alongside this quarterly bulletin as Official Statistics. For technical detail, please refer to the accompanying support document.

A visualisation tool that provides further breakdowns in a web-based application can be found here. For general feedback on the tool and related content of this publication, please contact us at: CAJS@justice.gov.uk

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2. Statistician’s comment

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Claims received in the county courts decreased slightly this quarter compared with the previous year. Decreases were recorded in claims gone to trial, judgments, and warrants issued. Meanwhile, allocations to track continue to recover following the closure of the County Court Money Claims Centre in Salford.

The average time between issue and trial for small track claims decreased this quarter, by 2 weeks compared to the same quarter in 2023. In contrast, the average time taken for fast/multi track claims to reach trial increased by 1.2 weeks over the same period.

There were six applications for new interim privacy injunctions in the High Court between January to June 2024, details of which are included this quarter. Five of the proceedings were granted. The remaining proceeding was refused.

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3. Claims Summary

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County court claims were down 1% on the same quarter of 2023, driven mostly by money claims.

There were 414,000 County Court claims lodged in April to June 2024. Of these, 365,000 (88%) were money and damages claims (down 2% from April to June 2023).

Non-money claim volumes were at 49,000, up 9% when compared to the same quarter in 2023.

Mortgage and landlord possession claims were up 13% over the same period to 30,000, ‘other non-money claims’ were up 3% to 17,000 and claims for return of goods were up 2% to 2,600.

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Figure 1: County Court claims by type, Q2 (April to June) 2019 to Q2 (April to June) 2024 (Source: table 1.2)

In the most recent quarter, total claims were down 1% compared to the same period in 2023 (from 419,000 to 414,000). Of these, 365,000 were money and damages claims, down 2% from April to June 2023 (from 374,000). Money and damages claims made up 88% of all claims in April to June 2024, down 1pp on its share in April to June 2023.

Prior to 2020, claim volumes had been relatively unchanged but volatile, driven by a few “bulk issuers” slowing down and then ramping up their volume of claims. Claim volumes decreased significantly following the outbreak of Covid-19. After an initial recovery in the second half of 2020, claims issued have remained relatively stable, close to pre-pandemic levels.

Non-money claims generally decreased between 2015 and Q1 2020. While these showed less of an impact following Covid-19 in contrast to money and damages claims, the recovery to pre-Covid19 volumes was slow. These showed gradual recovery between Q3 2020 and Q1 2023 but have remained relatively stable since Q3 2023. In the current quarter, these claims were up 9% (from 45,000 to 49,000) compared to the same period in 2023, driven by increases in Mortgage and Landlord Possession claims.

Within non-money claims, ‘other’ non-money claims have shown a decline since 2018. However, over the most recent quarters, these have shown early signs of stabilising, up 3% (from 16,000 to 17,000) compared to the same period in 2023. The previous decreases were likely to be partly as a result of whiplash reforms reducing the volume of road traffic accident claims going to court.

The overall trend in Mortgage and Landlord Possession claims decreased from a peak of 60,000 in January to March 2014 to 29,000 in January to March 2020. Following the impact of Covid-19, when it fell to 3,200, the lowest recorded, these have increased gradually to 30,000 claims in April to June 2024, up 13% compared to the same quarter of 2023 (27,000 claims). Further details can be found in the Mortgage and Landlord Possessions publication here.

Claims for return of goods increased steadily to a high of 3,500 in July-September 2018 but have since declined. Following a further decline due to the impact of Covid-19 to 700 in Q2 2020, there has been recovery in these figures and volumes have remained relatively stable since Q1 2022 to around pre-covid levels. This quarter, volumes are up 2% (to 2,600) compared to the same period in 2023.

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4. Money and Damages Claims^{[footnote 1]}

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Money claims were down 3% (to 342,000 claims) in April to June 2024 compared to the same quarter in 2023.

Money claims valued up to £500 were down 7% over this period to 147,000 and claims between £500 and £1,000 were down 12% to 50,000, driving the overall trend in money claims. However, claims between £3,000 and £5,000 and those over £5,000 rose over the same period by 19% and 20% respectively.

Damages claims were up 5% at 23,000 driven by an increase in personal injury claims (up 18%) to 16,000 compared to the same quarter in 2023, offsetting a decrease in other damages claims (down 16%) to 6,900 over the same period.

Personal injury claims showed general decreases between Q4 2020 and Q1 2022 but have remained relatively stable since Q4 2022. The decreasing trend is likely to have been due to a combination of factors including the introduction of whiplash reforms (with some cases being processed via the online portal rather than going to court).

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Figure 2: Money claims by monetary value, Q2 (April to June) 2019 to Q2 (April to June) 2024 (Source: civil workload CSV^{[footnote 2]})

Almost all (over 99%) money claims are processed and issued at the County Court Business Centre (CCBC)^{[footnote 3]}. There were 341,000 such claims at the CCBC in April to June 2024 (down 3% on the same quarter in 2023). CCBC claims were particularly affected by Covid-19 and associated actions, recording a more significant decrease than other money claims. This is due to bulk issuers almost completely ceasing their issue during the immediate response to the pandemic. These have now returned to historic trend levels.

The decrease in money claims is driven by claims valued under £500 and claims between £500 and £1,000. These were down 7% and 12% to 147,000 and 50,000 claims respectively in the period April to June 2024 compared to the same quarter in 2023.

Other than in Q2 2020, damages claims – made up of personal injury and other damages claims - have fluctuated between 21,000 and 38,000 claims each quarter over the last five years (since April to June 2019). In the current quarter volumes were up 5% to 23,000 in April to June 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. This was driven by an increase in personal injury claims up 18% from 14,000 to 16,000. Other damages claims volumes can be prone to volatility and this quarter were down 16% from 8,200 to 6,900. Other damages claims accounted for 30% of all damages claims in the most recent quarter, down 7pp compared to April to June 2023, when they accounted for 37% of all damages claims.

4.1 Allocations (table 1.3)

In April to June 2024, 30,000 money and damages claims were allocated to track, up 24% (from 24,000) compared to the same period in 2023. Allocations to track, which dropped to 24,000 in Q2 2023, have started to recover after the decline following the closure of the County Court Money Claims Centre in Salford and the transfer of work to the Civil National Business Centre. These volumes are expected to increase in the coming months as the Civil National Business Centre recovers performance to previous levels. Compared to April to June 2023, of these allocations:

• 21,000 were allocated to small claims, up 28% on April to June 2023. This accounts for 69% of all allocations (compared to 67% of all allocations in the same quarter of 2023);
• 7,600 were allocated to fast track, up 20% on April to June 2023. This accounts for 25% of all allocations (compared to 26% of all allocations in the same quarter of 2023);
• 1,700 were allocated to multi-track, down 5% on April to June 2023. This accounts for 6% of all allocations (compared to 7% of all allocations in the same quarter of 2023);

In October 2023, the extension of Fixed Recoverable Costs saw the introduction of a new Intermediate track which sits between the Fast and Multi track. The Intermediate track will be the normal track for claims valued between £25,000 and £100,000, with some exemptions^{[footnote 4]}. The track applies to both money and damages claims and introduces fixed recoverable costs to claims in this track which would previously have been allocated to the multi-track. Currently only 135 claims have been allocated to this track. These cases will be included in subsequent publications when the volumes increase enough to make reporting non-disclosive.

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5. Defences (including legal representation) and Trials

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The number of claims defended was up 4% to 64,000 compared to the same quarter in 2023.

Of those claims defended, 46% had legal representation for both claimant and defendant, 33% had representation for claimant only, and 4% for defendant only.

The number of trials was down 11% to 12,000 compared to the same quarter in 2023.

Average time taken for small claims was 50.6 weeks (2.0 weeks less compared to the same quarter in 2023) and for multi and fast track claims it was 79.3 weeks (1.2 weeks longer than April to June 2023).

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Of those claims defended in April to June 2024, 46% had legal representation for both claimant and defendant, 33% had representation for claimant only, and 4% for defendant only. Most (83%) damages claim defences had legal representation for both the defendant and claimant, compared with 36% of money claim defences.

Figure 3: Proportion of civil defences and legal representation status, April to June 2024 (Source: table 1.6)

The total number of claims defended was up 4% in April to June 2024 compared to the same quarter in 2023, from 61,000 to 64,000 cases. Money claim defences were up 11% from 38,000 to 42,000 compared to April to June 2023. On the contrary, a decrease was seen in defended damages claims (down 10% from 18,000 to 16,000).

5.1 Trials and Time Taken to Reach Trial (table 1.5)

Defended cases which are not settled or withdrawn, generally result in a trial. In total, there were 12,000 trials in April to June 2024, down 11% compared to the same period in 2023. This decline is likely due to the decrease in claims allocated to track in previous quarters caused by the closure of the County Court Money Claims Centre in Salford. Of the claims that went to trial, 9,500 (78%) were small claims trials (down 10% compared to the same quarter in 2023) and 2,700 (22%) were fast and multi-track trials (down 15% from the same quarter of 2023).

Figure 4: Average number of weeks from claim being issued to initial hearing date, Q2 (April to June) 2019 to Q2 (April to June) 2024 (Source: table 1.5)

In April to June 2024, it took an average of 50.6 weeks between a small claim being issued and the claim going to trial, 2 weeks less than the same period in 2023. Timeliness for Small Claims remains a challenge with this metric measuring only those cases concluding at trial (rather than through settlement following mediation for example). There is regional variation within this metric with longer waiting times experienced in London and the South East.

Mediation is being fully integrated as a key step in the court process for small civil claims valued up to £10,000. This, when successful, results in outcomes which are not used within the timeliness calculations. This means the final cases used in timeliness measures include a disproportionate number of more complex cases which take longer to dispose of.

The HMCTS Reform programme is modernising and digitising the systems to allow the courts to work more efficiently, and cases are expected to progress from issue to directions more quickly.

For multi/fast track claims, it took on average 79.3 weeks to reach a trial, 1.2 weeks longer than in April to June 2023, continuing to exceed the upper limit of the range seen in 2009-2019 (which was 52 to 61 weeks).

Covid-19 and associated actions have led to an uptick in time taken for all claims to reach trial. Prior to this, a sustained period of increasing receipts had increased the time taken to hear civil cases and caused delays to case progression.

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6. Judgments

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Judgments were down 14% compared to the same quarter in 2023.

There were 238,000 judgments made in April to June 2024, compared to 278,000 in the same quarter of 2023. Of these judgments, 220,000 (92%) were default judgments.

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Figure 5: All claims, judgments and default judgments, Q2 (April to June) 2019 to Q2 (April to June) 2024 (Source: tables 1.2 and 1.4)

There were 238,000 judgments made in April to June 2024, down 14% compared to the same quarter of 2023. Of these, 92% were default judgments, stable on its share in April to June 2023. These have remained relatively stable since 2018, with around 9 out of every 10 judgments resulting in a default judgment.

The second largest type of judgment was ‘admissions’^{[footnote 5]}, of which there were 10,000 in April to June 2024, down 14% on the same quarter in 2023 (from 12,000). ‘Admission’ judgments accounted for 4% of all judgments.

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7. Warrants and Enforcements

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Warrants issued were down 32% when compared to same quarter in 2023.

In April to June 2024, 63,000 warrants were issued, down 32% from 92,000 in the same quarter of 2023. Of these, 48,000 (76%) were warrants of control, down 39% compared to the same period in 2023.

Enforcement applications were up 5% and enforcement orders were down 2% when compared to April to June 2023.

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Figure 6: Warrants and enforcements issued – Q2 (April to June) 2019 to Q2 (April to June) 2024 (Source: tables 1.7 and 1.8)

7.1 Warrants (table 1.7)

In the latest quarter (April to June 2024) there were 63,000 warrants issued, down 32% (from 92,000) on the same quarter in 2023. Warrants of control accounted for 76% of total warrants, and were down 39%, from 78,000 to 48,000, compared to the same period in 2023. These volumes are largely driven by bulk user behaviour and as such can fluctuate significantly.

There were 15,000 possession warrants issued in April to June 2024, up 11% (from 13,000) on the same quarter in 2023. These have continued a general upwards trend since Q3 2020, following a sharp drop in Q2 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19.

7.2 Enforcements (table 1.8)

In April to June 2024, there were 13,000 enforcement-related order applications (which include attachment of earnings orders, charging orders, third party debt orders, administration orders, and orders to obtain information), up 5% compared to the same quarter of 2023. Attachment of earnings (AoE) and third party debt applications increased, up 15%, and 17% respectively. Charging orders and administration orders applications decreased, down 6% and 70% respectively.

There were 9,200 enforcement-related orders made in April to June 2024, down 2% compared to the same quarter of 2023. AoE orders fell, down 19% (from 2,700 to 2,200), driving the overall fall in volumes, although this was offset by a rise in charging orders, which were up 3% (from 5,000 to 5,200).

Over the longer term, there has been a decreasing trend in enforcement-related applications received and orders made since 2009, possibly due to claimants’ preference for using warrants instead to retrieve money, property or goods.

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8. Judicial reviews^{[footnote 6]}

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There were 850 judicial review applications received in Q2 2024, up 40% on Q2 2023 (610).

Of the 850 applications received in Q2 2024, 160 have already closed, and 17 were found to be ‘Totally Without Merit’ (12% of cases that reached the permission stage).

Judicial review cases moved to a new management system, CE-file, from September 2023. Only cases open from 2020 have been moved to the new system, and these cases may have small revisions when compared to previous publications. Cases prior to 2020 will no longer be revised as these have not been moved to CE-file; over 99% of these cases have already been closed.

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Figure 7: Judicial Review Applications, by type; Q2 2017 to Q2 2024 (Source: JR CSV)

Quarterly JR Receipts – April to June 2024:

Of the 850 applications received in Q2 2024, 260 were civil immigration and asylum applications, 550 were civil (other), and 43 were criminal, up 22%, 46% and 153% respectively on Q2 2023. None of the civil immigration and asylum cases have since been transferred to the UTIAC.

Of the applications that were made in Q2 2024, 19% are now closed. Of the total applications, 140 reached the permission stage in Q2 2024, and of these:

• 12% (17) were found to be totally without merit.
• 37 cases have already been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed and 89 were refused at the permission stage. 1 case refused at permission stage has so far gone on to be granted permission at the renewal stage.
• 38 cases were assessed to be eligible for a final hearing and of these, 8 have since been heard.
• the mean time from a case being lodged to the permission decision was 45 days. Although timeliness for cases being lodged to final hearing are included in the tables, this is based on too few cases to be meaningful. The actual time taken for these cases will only be known when they have had time to work their way through the system.

8.1 Applications lodged against departments (table 2.5)

Table 2.5 presents judicial review figures by defendant type (i.e. individual government department or public body). This table provides the number of judicial review applications lodged, permission granted to proceed to final hearing, and decisions found in favour of the claimant at final hearing.

The information presented is derived from the ‘defendant name’ – a free text field completed by the claimant, which is matched and grouped by department. All efforts have been made to quality assure the data presented. However, this is a manually typed field, and as such is open to inputting errors and should be used with caution.

The key findings for Q2 2024 are:

• Home Office had the largest number of JR applications lodged against them, with 240 applications. Of these, 11 have so far been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed to final hearing (5% of applications) to date.
• The second largest recipient of JR cases was the Local Authorities, with 230 cases received, of which to date 17 have so far been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed to final hearing (7% of applications).
• The third largest recipient was the Ministry of Justice, having 130 applications lodged against it. Of these, 6 have so far been granted permission or granted permission in part to proceed to final hearing (5% of applications) to date.

A more granular view of the JR data by department and case type can be found in the data visualisation tool found here. Feedback is welcome on this tool to ensure it meets user needs.

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9. Privacy Injunctions^{[footnote 7]}

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In the first six months of 2024, there were six proceedings where the High Court considered an application for a new interim privacy injunction.

Four proceedings were considered at the High Court on whether to continue or amend an interim injunction and one proceeding was considered on whether to issue a final permanent injunction.

There were no proceedings considered on whether to continue or amend an undertaking, and no proceedings considered a final undertaking^{[footnote 8]}.

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Figure 8: Number of privacy injunction proceedings, by type of proceeding, from Aug-Dec 2011^{[footnote 9]} to Jan-Jun 2024 (Source: tables 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3)

9.1 New interim privacy injunctions (Table 3.1)

Five of the six proceedings at the High Court that took place in January to June 2024 were granted. The remaining one was refused. In the first six months of the previous year (January to June 2023) seven new interim privacy injunction proceedings took place, and five of these were granted. The remaining two were refused.

9.2 Continuation of existing interim injunctions (Table 3.2)

The continuation of four existing interim injunction proceedings that took place in January to June 2024 were granted/varied. In January to June 2023, the continuation of one existing interim injunction proceedings was granted/varied.

9.3 Final privacy injunctions (Table 3.3)

There was one final privacy injunction dealt with in January to June 2024, and no final undertakings dealt with in the same period. There were no final privacy injunctions or final undertakings dealt with in the same period from the previous year (January to June 2023).

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10. Further information

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10.1 Provisional data and revisions

The statistics in the latest quarter are provisional and revisions may be made when the next edition of this bulletin is published. If revisions are needed in subsequent quarters, these will be annotated in the tables.

10.2 Accompanying files

As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:

• A supporting document providing further information on how the data is collected and processed, as well as information on the revisions policy and legislation relevant to civil justice.
• The quality statement published with this guide sets out our policies for producing quality statistical outputs for the information we provide to maintain our users’ understanding and trust.
• A set of overview tables (also available in accessible format) and CSV files, covering each section of this bulletin.
• A set of tables providing statistics on the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, also available in accessible format.
• A Judicial Review data visualisation tool (to provide a more granular view of the JR data by department and case type). This can be found here.
• A Sankey tool which shows case progression of civil cases in the county courts is here.
• A Civil data visualisation tool to provide a more granular and interactive view of cases through the civil claims system. This can be found here.

10.3 Rounding convention

Figures greater than 10,000 are rounded to the nearest 1,000, those between 1,000 and 10,000 are rounded to the nearest 100 and those between 100 to 1,000 are rounded to the nearest 10. Less than 100 are given as the actual number.

10.4 National Statistics status

National Statistics status are accredited official statistics that meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in January 2019. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

It is the Ministry of Justice’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected for National Statistics. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with the Authority promptly. National Statistics status can be removed at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.

10.5 Future publications

Our statisticians regularly review the content of publications. Development of new and improved statistical outputs is usually dependent on reallocating existing resources. As part of our continual review and prioritisation, we welcome user feedback on existing outputs including content, breadth, frequency and methodology. Please send any comments you have on this publication including suggestions for further developments or reductions in content.

10.6 Contacts

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) press office:

Sarah Cottrill - email: sarah.cottrill@justice.gov.uk

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to the Courts and People division of the Ministry of Justice:

Matteo Chiesa - email: cajs@justice.gov.uk

Next update: 5 December 2024

1. From 16th November 2023, a small proportion (approximately 14%) of data relating to stages from allocation to track to final hearing may be missing, incomplete or not correctly represented for money claims and damages claims. This is due to some of these cases progressing on the damages and online money claims systems, rather than the legacy caseman system. The data will be included as soon as the change is completed. ↩

2. Following the alignment of the fees for online and paper civil money and possession claims in May 2021, figure 2 shows all data with the updated claim brackets for comparison, a further breakdown of these brackets is available within the CSV. The CSV shows updated claim brackets from 2021. ↩

3. This includes claims for the County Court Business Centre, County Court Money Claims Centre (CCMCC), Courts and Tribunals Service Centre Salford, and County Court Online. ↩

4. PART 28 - THE FAST TRACK AND THE INTERMEDIATE TRACK - Civil Procedure Rules (justice.gov.uk) ↩

5. Judgment by admission is where the defendant admits the truth of the claim made. ↩

6. The judicial review data are Official Statistics ↩

7. The privacy injunction data are Official Statistics ↩

8. An undertaking is different from an injunction, in that it is a promise given by the defendants, rather than an injunction which is an order of the court ↩

9. H2 2011 only covers the period August-December 2011 and is not a full half-year ↩