Series details: CRDA/8

Civil and criminal judicial statistics were produced annually by the Home Office from 1856. In 1921 responsibility for the preparation of civil judicial statistics was passed to the Lord Chancellor; compilation of the statistics became the responsibility of the County Courts Branch. Preparation of criminal judicial statistics remained the responsibility of the Home Secretary. To save on costs the civil judicial statistics were pared down considerably from 1922. In 1968 a Committee on Civil Judicial Statistics recommended that the statistics needed to again be made more comprehensive so that they would have a wider use. To improve the method of collection, the committee also recommended that forms be produced upon which each court or office would record the relevant information. The committee suggested that a statistical unit be established to store and retrieve the data. In 1973, following the administrative changes introduced by the Courts Act 1971, a separate collection of Statistics on Judicial Administration was published in addition to the civil judicial statistics to provide information on the actual work of individual courts. In 1975, following the recommendations of a working party to consider the production of court statistics, the two publications were amalgamated to produce for the first time in one volume information on the whole of the business, criminal and civil, of those courts for which the Lord Chancellor was responsible.

The Judicial Statistics Database is a collection of workload statistics in the Crown and County courts of England and Wales dating from 1986. Until 1995 the data were collected annually by the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD). The Court Service took over the function upon its establishment as an executive agency in 1995. The data form the basis of all the business assessment and planning of both the LCD and the Court Service. Note that on 12 June 2003, the Lord Chancellor's Department was abolished and subsequently replaced by the creation of a new department known as the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA). For further information on the history of the Lord Chancellor's Department and the Court Service, see the Administrative History of the Lord Chancellor's Department.

The Judicial Statistics database contains records from 1986 to 2002. The data includes routine monthly returns from courts throughout England and Wales for which the Lord Chancellor is responsible, plus some sampler information taken at intervals throughout the time scale. The dataset is the latest method of storage and retrieval of the judicial statistics. It was intended for the first accession (which took place in 1998) to contain only data from 1986-1996, the latter being the most recent 'closed' year (the Department may make updates and corrections to the data during the year following the end of the reporting period). Subsequent annual accessions are to be for individual years on which processing by the Department has been completed, commencing with 1997. In fact the tables in the first dataset (CRDA/8/DS/1) also contain data input during 1997 and early 1998: it was decided not to compromise the integrity of the data transferred by trying to remove these, but users of this dataset should refer to CRDA/8/DS/2 in order to view the correct and final set of data for 1997, and to CRDA/8/DS/3 for 1998 data. Thus researchers are advised not to treat as definitive 1997 and 1998 data in CRDA/8/DS/1: full and final data for 1997 is included in CRDA/8/DS/2; data for 1998 has been included in the subsequent transfer to NDAD of CRDA/8/DS/3.

Annual transfers of the Judicial Statistics Database to NDAD are expected.

The Judicial Statistics Database and its related documentation are public records under the Public Records Acts 1958 and 1967. The National Archives has assigned the database and related documentation the class reference LE 1.

The Judicial Statistics dataset series and related dataset documentation are open to the public, with the exception of the field 'JUDGE_NAME', located within the table 'Judges' ID' (judgcode). Under Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act (i.e. personal information defined within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998), this field will remain closed for 60 years. This field closure only applies to datasets dated from 1997 onwards (ie. references CRDA/8/DS/2 - CRDA/8/DS/7). Data and documentation related to the very first dataset transfer (i.e. CRDA/8/DS/1) are however completely open to the public. The catalogues of individual datasets give details of the tables which are affected (see Links to dataset catalogues). Data is available for browsing on demand by users of NDAD and does not have to be booked in advance.

NB: Access history: A number of tables within the 1997 - 2000 datasets were formerly closed for 30 years. For 1997 and 1998 data, four whole tables were previously closed in accordance with a 30 year restriction (ie judgcode, group10a, stats10 and stats10a). The 1999 - 2000 datasets included three tables (stats10, st10a99 and judgcode) that were previously subject to a 30 year closure. Following a revision of access conditions under the Freedom of Information Act (2000), the Department agreed that only one FOI exemption would now apply ie to one field within each of the individual datasets ie 'JUDGE_NAME' field closed for 60 years (with the exception of CRDA/8/DS/1 Judicial Statistics data 1986 - 1996, which was always open on transfer). The remainder of the data was therefore opened in November 2007 and is now subject to the access conditions noted above.

The Judicial Statistics Database is subject to Crown Copyright. Copies may be made for private study and research purposes only.

The Judicial Statistics Database is not subject to registration under the Data Protection Act.

The language of the materials is English.

Several ad hoc studies and reports draw on the data for various planning purposes including annual budgets, staffing and long-term building plans.

The records of the Court Service are public records under the Public Records Acts 1958 and 1967. They are held at the Public Record Office in classes with the reference LE. Earlier and related records are held in the PRO in the following classes: Records of the Home Office are held in classes with the reference "HO". Statistics entry books relating to judicial statistics 1856-1921 are in HO 155; Statistical Branch files and registers 1834-1960 are in HO 329. Records of the Lord Chancellor's Department are held in classes with the reference "LCO". Records of the Royal Commission on Assizes and Quarter Sessions are in LCO 7; records relating to the administration of county courts 1788-1972 are in LCO 8; registered files of Circuit Administration Officers 1969-1992 are in LCO 30, LCO 37, LCO 38, LCO 40, LCO 45 and LCO 46. Records of the Supreme Court of Judicature and related courts are held in classes with the reference "J". County Court Registrars' returns relating to civil judicial statistics 1938-1970 are in J 94.

The Government Statistical Service publishes the databases findings annually in Judicial Statistics, which has been produced in its present form since 1975. Judicial Statistics relates to the criminal and civil business of those courts in England and Wales for whose administration the Lord Chancellor is responsible. They also cover the work of some associated offices including the Public Trust Office, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and certain tribunals. The first chapters of Judicial Statistics includes a brief description of the function, constitution and jurisdiction of the courts or tribunals concerned, with an explanation of some of the procedures involved. Later chapters deal with the judiciary and taxation of costs and legal aid. Commentary highlighting the major features of the statistics and any notable trends is included. All data relate to the calendar years shown unless otherwise indicated. To see a copy of this report see CRDA/8/DD/1 in the dataset documentation catalogue.

An IBM compatible PC (486) was used at the time of transfer

The operating system used is MS-DOS Version 6.2.

The data were initially entered, stored and manipulated using the Dataflex DBMS (Version 2.1).

This is a view of the main screen:

This is a view of Option 1 from main option screen:

This a view of the Input menu screen:

This is the input for stats 33a:

To view the original version of the screenshots and further associated details, consult the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/8/DD/10.

Apart from a number of lookup tables (court, fpclu, psdlu and, except for judgcode), each table contains the data collected from a specific form, cumulatively since the introduction of the database system, or the inception of the form, whichever is later.

Closed.

Data were collected by clerks or administrative officers within the courts using a series of forms and notes filled in on a regular basis, usually monthly (see the Dataset Documentation Catalogue reference CRDA/8/DD/3 for an Index of the forms and notes used and CRDA/8/DD/4 for copies of the forms).

The data were input in one of two ways. The first route consisted of forms being filled out by clerks or administrative officers within the courts and the forms then sent to the Court Service where the data were entered. The data were then entered using Dataflex Version 2.1 from 1986 until March 1999 and printouts were made. This occurred at the Court Service and the data were directly input into the system by a data inputter. The second route involved the data from forms being keyed into systems such as LOCSS, CASEMAN and CREST in the courts themselves, transmitted to EDS and then sent by EDS to the Court Service.

The resulting printouts and reports, in the form of an Excel Spreadsheet were used to amalgamate figures and to monitor the performance of each court. These figures were checked by the Circuit Administrators as well as the Board of Senior Management of the Court Service.

Details of the content and transformation validation checks performed by NDAD staff on each Judicial Statistics dataset are contained in the catalogues of individual datasets: see Links to dataset catalogues.

Dataset catalogues provide more detailed information about individual datasets, and are currently available for the following dataset(s):