Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
County Court delays are unacceptable and exacerbated pre-existing trends in the justice system.
Conclusion
‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ has never been more relevant to the work of the County Court: the current level of delays is unacceptable. Whilst we recognise the pandemic significantly contributed to the backlog in cases, the available data clearly shows it only exacerbated existing trends. The rising caseload, and increased delays were in motion before 2020, and post-pandemic there has been little by way of improvement. (Conclusion, Paragraph 30)
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges unacceptable delays for trials and commits to increasing judicial recruitment, enhancing digital working, and implementing the Civil Auto File Share (CAFS) project to streamline document management and improve case progression.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
We accept that some waiting times for those claims that require a trial are too long. We are working with the Judiciary to improve this position. However, whilst we understand the Committee’s focus on the length of time for cases to reach hearings, it is important to note that the County Court receives circa 1.7m claims per year and only 3% of cases require resolution at trial; it is this small percentage which are captured in the timeliness metrics. Timeliness is driven by many factors; some administrative which we control and some which we do not as they are driven by the conduct of the parties. In 2015, Small Claims reached trial in an average of 31.6 weeks and Fast and Multi Track trials within 54.3 weeks. As noted above, performance against these metrics is starting to improve. Most recently (Q2 2025), Small Claims that required determination at trial took an average of 49.2 weeks to reach conclusion compared to a high of 55.7 weeks in Q3 2023. Similar results are apparent across higher value claims with Fast and Multi Track cases improving to 72.4 weeks in Q2 2025 compared to a high of 85.5 weeks in Q4 2023. A combination of factors is driving this, including increased use of mediation, most notably the requirement for defended Small Claims for a fixed amount of money to proceed through HMCTS’ Small Claims Mediation Service. This is enabling more cases to reach conclusion at an earlier stage. We are increasing resource through judicial recruitment and introducing efficiencies through increased digital working. In addition, HMCTS’s new reform services are helping to improve performance and provide swifter access to justice. For example, claims issued on Reform services consistently progress three times quicker from the time the claim is issued to the generation of a Standard Directions Order (8 weeks compared to 30 weeks for Online Civil Money Claims and 13 weeks compared to 39 weeks for Damages Claims). As we continue to increase the volume of claims issued on these services, this will improve performance. We are also implementing improvements in electronic document management through the Civil Auto File share (CAFS) project. CAFS will streamline workflows by digitising paper files and so reduce manual processing time and eliminate the time taken to transfer files by post. This will deliver faster justice and reduce reliance on paper.