Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department holds data on the outstanding caseload in the County Court in England and Wales.

No data is held regarding outstanding caseloads in the County Court in England and Wales. Civil cases do not progress through the court system in a linear way. The vast majority of civil cases settle, are resolved by default judgment, or conclude outside of a final court hearing. Only about 3% of cases are disposed of at a final hearing. Given this, and the fact that civil claims are often driven by party behaviour, an outstanding caseload figure would not provide a fair or meaningful reflection of County Court demand or performance.

I can confirm County Court performance is improving, with the median time taken from claim issue to hearing falling for all tracks. The median time taken for small claims to go to trial was 36.1 weeks in October to December 2025, 6.4 weeks faster than the same period in 2024. The median time taken for fast/intermediate/multi track claims to go to trial was 9.3 weeks faster than the same period last year, at 57.4 weeks in the current quarter.