The Ministry of Justice (including its executive agency His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service) has worked closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that the courts have sufficient capacity to manage the impact of the Renter’s Rights Act 2025 including the increase in Section 8 claims following its commencement.

This year, over 80,000 sitting days were committed to the civil jurisdiction. This is a significant increase and recognises the importance of the civil jurisdiction.

The Ministry of Justice (including its executive agency His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service) is working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to make sure that the courts have sufficient capacity to manage the impact of the Renter’s Rights Act 2025 on the justice system. This includes ensuring sufficient provision of sitting days to deal with case volumes.

This year, there will be 80,200 sitting days in the civil jurisdiction. This is a record allocation, recognising the importance of the civil jurisdiction.

We continue to invest in annual judicial recruitment for c.1000 vacancies across all jurisdictions, including the county courts. The Judicial Appointments Commission reports how many District and Deputy District Judges it has recommended from annual District Judge and c.18-monthly Deputy District Judge recruitment.

The information can be found at - https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/corp-publication/completed-selection-exercises-for-the-2025-26-financial-year/#4-January2026March2026Quarter4. District Judge recruitment is underway for up to 70 candidates and further Deputy District Judge recruitment is planned for later this year.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 93111 on 27 November 2025.

The information requested is not held centrally. The terms “document handling errors” and “lost filings” are broad and may encompass a wide range of issues, making it difficult to provide a specific or reliable answer. HMCTS is reducing the risk of administrative errors in civil claims through work to digitalise processes.

The Deputy Prime Minister has announced further modernisation of civil justice with £50 million investment to continue digitalising the County Court.

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.

There were more than 1.9 million civil claims issued in the County Court in 2025. County Court claims can be made via HMCTS’ modern digital services (Online Civil Money Claims and Damages Claims services), older digital services (Money Claims Online and Possession Claims Online) or on paper.

HMCTS keeps the Online Civil Money Claims (OCMC) service under routine operational monitoring.

No assessment has been undertaken specifically on the reliability of recording and processing defendants’ submissions. Issues identified through live running have been limited in number and resolved promptly and have not indicated a need for a wider assessment.

In 2025, of incidents and complaints received by HMCTS relating to civil claims, 342 complaints were classified as ‘documents or information went missing’, 222 complaints classified as ‘my documents were not filed’; 92 data incidents recorded as ‘loss or theft of paper documents inside HMCTS premises’ and 31 data incidents recorded as ‘loss or theft of paper documents outside HMCTS premises’. There will be further instances of lost or unprocessed documents which have not been recorded, for example because they have not caused a complaint or data incident.

HMCTS is reducing the risk of administrative errors in civil claims though work to digitalise processes. The OCMC and Damages Claims services enable parties to manage a civil claim digitally from start to finish, including the ability to upload evidence, make applications and view judicial orders online. A digital Possession Service is being developed. The Deputy Prime Minister has announced further modernisation of the Civil Courts with an over £50 million investment to continue digitalising the County Court. HMCTS is also improving internal electronic document management and replacing paper-based and email processes with a digital, centrally stored case file, reducing reliance on manual handling and physical transfer of documents between teams and courts.

HMCTS has processes to reduce the risk of default judgment being entered where a defence has been submitted but not yet processed. Defences provided by paper are prioritised and judgment requests returned; Money Claims Online (MCOL) applies a buffer to check for paper responses; and responses provided on paper to claims made via OCMC are processed on receipt, with functionality to set aside judgments where a response and judgment request coincide.

“Properly processed” means received and recorded by the court. Where a defence has not been received, default judgment cannot be prevented, but urgent set-aside processes are in place where court error is identified.

The Civil Procedure Rule Committee is responsible for the rules that govern the procedure for notifying people of court proceedings, known as the rules of service. In July 2025 it consulted on changes to the service rules including to permit electronic service on parties with whom there has already been electronic communication pre-action. The work to review responses to the consultation and any subsequent Civil Procedure Rules amendments is ongoing. The consultation can be found at - Civil Procedure Rule Committee - service consultation

Official statistics published by Ministry of Justice provide figures for appeals.

In the most recent year for which data is available (2024), the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) recorded the outcomes for appeals originating from the county courts that were allowed and dismissed. This along with data on the proportion of appeals against county court decisions that were successful can be found in the following official publication: Royal Courts of Justice and Judicial Sitting Days Annual Tables - 2024.

Withdrawn cases are not separately recorded in the published dataset.

Official statistics published by Ministry of Justice provide figures for appeals.

In the most recent year for which data is available (2024), the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) recorded the outcomes for appeals originating from the county courts that were allowed and dismissed. This along with data on the proportion of appeals against county court decisions that were successful can be found in the following official publication: Royal Courts of Justice and Judicial Sitting Days Annual Tables - 2024.

Withdrawn cases are not separately recorded in the published dataset.

Data on the number of decisions made in the county courts and the proportion appealed to the Court of Appeal can be found in the following official publications: Royal_Courts_of_Justice_Annual_Tables_2024.ods.

High Court data is not broken down by source court, therefore the number of appeals originating from county courts cannot be determined.