Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the financial impact on UK small and medium-sized enterprises of defending civil litigation (a) brought and (b) contested in UK courts by (i) individuals and (ii) entities that are (A) subject to and (B) under investigation for UK financial sanctions.

Lord Justice Jackson’s Review of Civil Litigation Costs considered the cost of defending civil claims, and aimed to rebalance the risk between claimants and defendants in order to promote access to justice at proportionate cost. The final report can be found here. The report led to significant reforms, including ending the recoverability of Conditional Fee Agreement success fees and After The Event insurance premiums, and the introduction of Fixed Recoverable Costs (FRCs) in certain civil cases. Between October 2025 and January 2026, the Government held an initial stocktake of FRCs. The responses to this will help inform the upcoming post-implementation review of the FRC regime, which will consider how that specific reform is operating in practice.

More recently, the Civil Justice Council (CJC) carried out a thorough and wide-ranging review of litigation funding which considered concerns about the cost and burden of litigation for defendants. The CJC’s full report can be found here and its interim report and public consultation can be found here. Alongside the public consultation, the CJC established both a core Working Group and Consultation Group to ensure a wide range of perspectives informed the development of its recommendations.

The Government is confident the CJC and Lord Justice Jackson have suitably reviewed litigation funding and civil costs. As such, we have not made our own formal assessment of the impact of defending civil litigation on small and medium-sized enterprises.