Family Proceedings
(asked on 29th August 2025) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many open family cases there were in each Designated Family Judge area as of 23 July 2025, broken down by (a) public law and (b) private law; and what proportion of those cases involved litigants in person.
The information requested is provided in the data tables below up until 31 March 2025, aligning with the time period published in the Ministry of Justice’s official statistics. All data is taken from HMCTS administrative systems.
Caseload data by Designated Family Judge area:
| Count of the Public Law Open Caseload as at the 31 March 2025 broken down to reflect whether parties to proceedings have legal representation |
| |||
Designated Family Judge Area | Both Applicant and Respondent | Applicant only | Respondent only | Neither Applicant nor Respondent | Total |
Birmingham | 190 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 202 |
Blackburn/Lancaster | 304 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 325 |
Bournemouth and Dorset | 76 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 78 |
Brighton | 205 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 215 |
Bristol (A, NS and G) | 232 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 239 |
Business Centres | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Carlisle | 98 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 107 |
Central London | 529 | 20 | 1 | 2 | 552 |
Cleveland and South Durham | 259 | 24 | 0 | 3 | 286 |
Coventry | 100 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 107 |
Derby | 158 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 162 |
Devon | 246 | 20 | 0 | 1 | 267 |
East London | 535 | 18 | 0 | 1 | 554 |
Essex and Suffolk | 319 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 332 |
Humberside | 220 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 232 |
Leicester | 124 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 127 |
Lincoln | 96 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 101 |
Liverpool | 493 | 52 | 1 | 6 | 552 |
Luton | 119 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 126 |
Manchester | 721 | 37 | 0 | 3 | 761 |
Medway and Canterbury | 342 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 349 |
Milton Keynes | 140 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 144 |
North Wales | 99 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 108 |
North Yorkshire | 94 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 101 |
Northampton | 98 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 101 |
Northumbria and North Durham | 397 | 26 | 0 | 8 | 431 |
Norwich | 100 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 103 |
Nottingham | 131 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 138 |
Peterborough and Cambridge | 139 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 142 |
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW) | 194 | 21 | 0 | 2 | 217 |
Reading | 239 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 248 |
Royal Courts of Justice | 44 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 |
South East Wales | 216 | 25 | 0 | 3 | 244 |
South Yorkshire | 273 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 286 |
Stoke on Trent | 162 | 19 | 0 | 2 | 183 |
Surrey | 89 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 94 |
Swansea | 100 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 113 |
Swindon | 63 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 65 |
Taunton | 99 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 104 |
Truro | 66 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 70 |
Watford | 85 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 91 |
West London | 385 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 400 |
West Yorkshire | 342 | 29 | 0 | 3 | 374 |
Wolverhampton | 283 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 299 |
Worcester | 76 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 85 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
England and Wales | 9,280 | 526 | 3 | 51 | 9,860 |
| Count of the Private Law Open Caseload as at the 31 March 2025 broken down to reflect whether parties to proceedings have legal representation |
| |||
Designated Family Judge Area | Both Applicant and Respondent | Applicant only | Respondent only | Neither Applicant nor Respondent | Total |
Birmingham | 106 | 139 | 113 | 232 | 590 |
Blackburn/Lancaster | 148 | 208 | 132 | 388 | 876 |
Bournemouth and Dorset | 42 | 52 | 49 | 114 | 257 |
Brighton | 128 | 244 | 179 | 734 | 1285 |
Bristol (A, NS and G) | 223 | 205 | 158 | 458 | 1044 |
Business Centres | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 8 |
Carlisle | 46 | 58 | 39 | 106 | 249 |
Central London | 328 | 446 | 338 | 985 | 2097 |
Cleveland and South Durham | 113 | 92 | 90 | 154 | 449 |
Coventry | 81 | 90 | 82 | 164 | 417 |
Derby | 107 | 88 | 98 | 194 | 487 |
Devon | 171 | 185 | 170 | 310 | 836 |
East London | 346 | 484 | 416 | 881 | 2127 |
Essex and Suffolk | 305 | 394 | 320 | 894 | 1913 |
Humberside | 72 | 115 | 89 | 232 | 508 |
Leicester | 111 | 134 | 114 | 273 | 632 |
Lincoln | 69 | 69 | 51 | 112 | 301 |
Liverpool | 271 | 300 | 276 | 608 | 1455 |
Luton | 83 | 123 | 114 | 318 | 638 |
Manchester | 407 | 548 | 421 | 1094 | 2470 |
Medway and Canterbury | 197 | 292 | 260 | 788 | 1537 |
Milton Keynes | 48 | 72 | 73 | 169 | 362 |
North Wales | 58 | 46 | 42 | 55 | 201 |
North Yorkshire | 79 | 79 | 64 | 106 | 328 |
Northampton | 42 | 53 | 58 | 206 | 359 |
Northumbria and North Durham | 229 | 209 | 159 | 293 | 890 |
Norwich | 90 | 104 | 99 | 225 | 518 |
Nottingham | 135 | 189 | 140 | 269 | 733 |
Peterborough and Cambridge | 119 | 145 | 100 | 357 | 721 |
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW) | 177 | 269 | 208 | 781 | 1435 |
Reading | 169 | 262 | 206 | 473 | 1110 |
Royal Courts of Justice | 90 | 428 | 32 | 281 | 831 |
South East Wales | 83 | 104 | 71 | 179 | 437 |
South Yorkshire | 115 | 140 | 112 | 203 | 570 |
Stoke on Trent | 89 | 101 | 81 | 204 | 475 |
Surrey | 144 | 160 | 125 | 395 | 824 |
Swansea | 139 | 126 | 65 | 94 | 424 |
Swindon | 41 | 60 | 44 | 196 | 341 |
Taunton | 73 | 64 | 67 | 144 | 348 |
Truro | 85 | 66 | 58 | 170 | 379 |
Watford | 117 | 162 | 151 | 386 | 816 |
West London | 415 | 494 | 405 | 953 | 2267 |
West Yorkshire | 225 | 280 | 173 | 409 | 1087 |
Wolverhampton | 226 | 243 | 167 | 405 | 1041 |
Worcester | 78 | 79 | 70 | 130 | 357 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
England and Wales | 6,420 | 8,202 | 6,279 | 16,129 | 37,030 |
Notes:
The HMCTS data provided above is in line with latest MoJ statistics.
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.
A party is considered 'applicant-represented' if at least one applicant has a recorded representative, and likewise for respondents.
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.