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Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many open family cases there are in each Designated Family Judge area for (a) public and (b) private family law; and what proportion of those cases in each area involve litigants in person in (i) 31 March 2011, (ii) 31 March 2016 and (iii) 31 March 2019.

Answer

Mike Freer

Conservative

Finchley and Golders Green

Commons

Answered on

16 November 2023

This answer is a correction from the original answer.

The information requested is provided in the data tables below and is taken from HMCTS administrative data systems.

We have not been able to provide figures for 2011 as this data was not recorded centrally before 2014.

Count of the Private and Public Law Open Caseload as at the 31st March 2016 broken down by representative ^1,2
	Public Law³ Open Caseload				Private Law Open Caseload
DESIGNATED FAMILY JUDGE AREA	Both Applicant and Respondent were represented	Applicant only represented	Respondent only represented	Neither Applicant nor Respondent Represented	Both Applicant and Respondent were represented	Applicant only represented	Respondent only represented	Neither Applicant nor Respondent Represented
Birmingham	188	58	1	9	203	321	124	435
Blackburn/Lancaster	264	37	0	0	151	185	78	196
Bournemouth and Dorset	114	17	0	2	53	86	41	118
Brighton	141	41	0	3	90	171	93	283
Bristol (A, NS and G)	194	38	1	0	116	141	90	201
Carlisle	75	13	0	3	33	52	20	75
Central London	302	93	6	6	224	375	150	606
Cleveland and South Durham	167	35	0	2	107	98	45	117
Coventry	130	21	0	3	106	116	53	171
Derby	101	18	0	1	76	77	51	96
Devon	169	39	0	1	103	127	79	158
East London	290	96	0	2	267	379	183	630
Essex and Suffolk	209	66	0	0	150	221	158	337
Guildford	60	31	0	0	70	67	47	138
Humberside	124	32	0	2	64	103	53	182
Leicester	128	27	0	1	87	88	63	146
Lincoln	67	8	0	0	57	73	40	70
Liverpool	371	101	1	5	210	263	158	448
Luton	81	13	1	1	47	100	52	158
Manchester	326	136	1	4	249	321	154	466
Medway and Canterbury	193	51	1	2	59	93	46	220
Milton Keynes	97	16	0	2	48	63	40	96
North Wales	87	14	0	1	85	54	60	70
North Yorkshire	42	11	0	1	64	56	29	85
Northampton	121	37	0	0	38	57	48	155
Northumbria and North Durham	392	77	0	5	191	220	113	270
Norwich	92	23	0	0	52	89	38	116
Nottingham	129	23	0	2	108	135	102	159
Peterborough and Cambridge	109	19	0	0	57	69	30	101
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW)	154	30	0	1	140	200	110	301
Reading	201	34	0	2	160	211	109	263
Royal Courts of Justice	25	21	2	1	214	460	36	164
South East Wales	211	31	1	2	165	172	110	227
South Yorkshire	236	47	0	1	134	168	97	264
Stoke on Trent	123	28	1	2	101	122	81	161
Swansea	111	33	1	0	133	87	64	65
Swindon	54	10	0	0	66	103	54	145
Taunton	92	10	0	2	28	43	23	60
Truro	47	5	0	0	50	46	30	71
Watford	110	33	0	0	76	90	66	170
West London	277	74	0	2	208	296	167	424
West Yorkshire	308	39	0	5	215	296	135	276
Wolverhampton	213	58	0	0	139	186	67	174
Worcester	71	15	0	1	68	74	44	86
(blank)	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
Grand Total	6996	1659	17	77	5062	6757	3431	9154
Count of the Private and Public Law Open Caseload as at the 31st March 2019 broken down by representative ^1,2
	Public Law³ Open Caseload				Private Law Open Caseload
DESIGNATED FAMILY JUDGE AREA	Both Applicant and Respondent were represented	Applicant only represented	Respondent only represented	Neither Applicant nor Respondent Represented	Both Applicant and Respondent were represented	Applicant only represented	Respondent only represented	Neither Applicant nor Respondent Represented
Birmingham	181	60	0	4	252	368	162	607
Blackburn/Lancaster	338	91	0	0	162	271	152	477
Bournemouth and Dorset	83	10	0	0	78	89	63	165
Brighton	177	26	0	0	134	167	101	339
Bristol (A, NS and G)	225	56	0	0	169	236	170	430
Carlisle	89	22	1	1	61	49	32	114
Central London	309	116	0	8	270	406	245	543
Cleveland and South Durham	240	59	0	6	107	127	75	178
Coventry	180	40	0	2	115	127	98	239
Derby	246	40	0	0	117	110	81	157
Devon	172	44	0	1	170	192	167	289
East London	346	128	0	5	432	594	371	1068
Essex and Suffolk	223	79	2	4	212	340	218	664
Guildford	96	43	0	1	106	105	79	291
Humberside	144	46	2	7	48	122	79	287
Leicester	132	39	0	5	127	177	105	275
Lincoln	98	16	0	0	84	126	72	155
Liverpool	418	156	0	5	244	379	245	689
Luton	55	22	0	2	60	91	55	181
Manchester	466	180	0	6	301	457	261	828
Medway and Canterbury	170	51	1	1	132	166	119	370
Milton Keynes	109	29	0	1	53	73	43	223
North Wales	107	29	2	1	91	87	50	93
North Yorkshire	39	9	0	2	86	114	71	150
Northampton	123	22	0	0	48	71	52	193
Northumbria and North Durham	440	168	1	7	288	377	282	627
Norwich	141	51	0	0	85	122	82	203
Nottingham	165	28	0	0	133	164	112	300
Peterborough and Cambridge	127	22	1	1	93	103	75	193
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW)	207	41	0	0	164	237	168	507
Reading	237	33	0	1	192	232	176	441
Royal Courts of Justice	14	11	0	0	143	390	27	130
South East Wales	243	51	0	6	245	257	188	416
South Yorkshire	337	45	0	0	181	198	160	390
Stoke on Trent	194	49	1	0	132	159	89	244
Swansea	141	18	0	4	225	154	98	144
Swindon	83	9	0	1	56	81	54	160
Taunton	63	6	0	0	57	48	53	116
Truro	56	9	0	0	60	53	53	114
Watford	85	14	0	0	99	121	84	303
West London	346	63	0	1	298	458	265	744
West Yorkshire	347	123	2	5	309	442	252	539
Wolverhampton	337	57	1	3	207	240	143	319
Worcester	58	22	0	2	104	96	59	105
Grand Total	8387	2233	14	93	6730	8976	5586	15000
This is Management Information; the data is taken from a live management information system and can change over time and may differ from previously published data.
Self-representation is determined by the field 'legal representation' in Familyman being left blank. Therefore, this is only a proxy measure and parties without a recorded representative are not necessarily self-representing litigants in person.
2. A party is considered 'applicant-represented' if at least one applicant has a recorded representative, and likewise for respondents.
3. The majority of Public law applicants are public bodies with access to their own legal resources - however, this legal representation is often not recorded. To address this, we introduced a methodology which assumes that all public body applicants have legal representation.
Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system.

Original answer

The information requested is provided in the data tables below and is taken from HMCTS administrative data systems.

We have not been able to provide figures for 2011 as this data was not recorded centrally before 2014.

Count of the Private and Public Law Open Caseload as at the 31st March 2016 broken down to include cases without a representative
DESIGNATED FAMILY JUDGE AREA	Public Law Open Caseload			Private Law Open Caseload
	Unrepresented¹	Represented	Total	Unrepresented¹	Represented	Total
Birmingham	65	186	251	730	317	1047
Blackburn/Lancaster	36	258	294	379	228	607
Bournemouth and Dorset	19	113	132	204	94	298
Brighton	44	141	185	454	183	637
Bristol (A, NS and G)	35	193	228	338	205	543
Carlisle	16	73	89	126	53	179
Central London	120	325	445	1600	622	2222
Cleveland and South Durham	36	166	202	215	152	367
Coventry	17	124	141	279	154	433
Derby	19	100	119	172	126	298
Devon	39	167	206	285	180	465
East London	95	285	380	1000	447	1447
Essex and Suffolk	64	198	262	554	306	860
Guildford	31	58	89	204	117	321
Humberside	34	122	156	285	115	400
Leicester	28	123	151	230	145	375
Lincoln	8	67	75	142	97	239
Liverpool	106	364	470	708	363	1071
Luton	14	81	95	256	99	355
Manchester	139	320	459	777	398	1175
Medway and Canterbury	52	184	236	312	100	412
Milton Keynes	24	176	200	328	170	498
North Wales	15	85	100	122	144	266
North Yorkshire	12	42	54	141	93	234
Northampton	37	121	158	208	83	291
Northumbria and North Durham	82	380	462	485	296	781
Norwich	23	90	113	203	90	293
Nottingham	25	119	144	294	207	501
Peterborough and Cambridge	18	106	124	170	86	256
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW)	31	150	181	499	248	747
Reading	28	116	144	299	176	475
South East Wales	33	209	242	392	272	664
South Yorkshire	48	235	283	429	230	659
Stoke on Trent	25	111	136	274	177	451
Swansea	33	109	142	152	196	348
Swindon	9	53	62	248	118	366
Taunton	12	92	104	103	51	154
Truro	5	46	51	116	80	196
Watford	33	109	142	260	142	402
West London	73	270	343	717	371	1088
West Yorkshire	43	304	347	572	349	921
Wolverhampton	58	208	266	352	198	550
Worcester	15	68	83	158	110	268
(blank)	37	161	198	135	105	240
Grand Total	1736	7008	8744	15907	8493	24400
Count of the Private and Public Law Open Caseload as at the 31st March 2019 broken down to include cases without a representative
DESIGNATED FAMILY JUDGE AREA	Public Law Open Caseload			Private Law Open Caseload
	Unrepresented¹	Represented	Total	Unrepresented¹	Represented	Total
Birmingham	64	180	244	973	412	1385
Blackburn/Lancaster	91	337	428	747	313	1060
Bournemouth and Dorset	10	83	93	254	141	395
Brighton	26	177	203	506	235	741
Bristol (A, NS and G)	54	225	279	666	339	1005
Carlisle	23	89	112	163	93	256
Central London	134	320	454	1467	685	2152
Cleveland and South Durham	65	240	305	305	182	487
Coventry	42	180	222	365	213	578
Derby	40	245	285	267	197	464
Devon	45	172	217	481	337	818
East London	132	343	475	1658	803	2461
Essex and Suffolk	82	220	302	1000	428	1428
Guildford	44	95	139	396	185	581
Humberside	53	146	199	409	127	536
Leicester	44	128	172	450	232	682
Lincoln	16	98	114	280	156	436
Liverpool	161	414	575	1068	489	1557
Luton	24	55	79	272	115	387
Manchester	185	462	647	1284	562	1846
Medway and Canterbury	52	167	219	536	251	787
Milton Keynes	39	200	239	475	212	687
North Wales	30	108	138	180	141	321
North Yorkshire	11	39	50	264	157	421
Northampton	22	123	145	264	99	363
Northumbria and North Durham	175	438	613	1004	569	1573
Norwich	51	139	190	324	167	491
Nottingham	28	160	188	464	244	708
Peterborough and Cambridge	22	126	148	296	167	463
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW)	41	206	247	744	331	1075
Reading	23	145	168	488	244	732
South East Wales	57	243	300	670	432	1102
South Yorkshire	45	336	381	587	341	928
Stoke on Trent	48	193	241	402	221	623
Swansea	22	140	162	298	322	620
Swindon	10	82	92	241	110	351
Taunton	6	63	69	164	110	274
Truro	9	56	65	166	113	279
Watford	14	84	98	424	183	607
West London	64	344	408	1200	563	1763
West Yorkshire	127	347	474	981	561	1542
Wolverhampton	60	333	393	556	349	905
Worcester	23	57	80	200	163	363
(blank)	12	58	70	28	21	49
Grand Total	2326	8396	10722	23967	12315	36282

Answered by

Ministry of Justice

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