Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals or applications were brought (a) in each of the two years before the increase and (b) in each of the two years after the increase for each court or tribunal that has experienced a fee rise of more than 100 per cent in a single increase in the last five years.

Our courts and tribunals play a critical role in our society and it is vital we preserve the principle of access to justice by providing a properly funded service.

It is right that those who use the court and tribunal system should pay more to relieve the burden on the taxpayer. At every stage we have sought to protect the most vulnerable by ensuring that a system of fee remissions and exemptions is in place for those who cannot afford to pay a fee.

The only fees which have seen single increases of more than 100 per cent in the last five years are those payable for money claims of more than £10,000 brought in the civil courts. Those fees were increased in March 2015. The information relating to application volumes is below:

The figures in the table include specified money claims worth more than £10,000 and unspecified money claims worth more than £15,000. Unspecified money claims are categorised in three ways: under £15,000, between £15,000 and £50,000 and over £50,000, therefore it is not possible to generate a precise breakdown of unspecified money claims worth more than £10,000.