Civil justice statistics in Scotland 2022-23

2. Recent trends of civil law court cases

This chapter examines the evidence from courts data of the effect of court reforms in recent years.

The total number of civil cases initiated in the courts increased in 2022-23 (53,866 to 60,943), up 13% on the total for 2021-22. There were increases in all case types from the previous year except family which fell by 7%. The highest increases were seen in evictions (up 128%) and damages (up 28%). The increase in evictions follows a large Covid-related fall in 2020-21 to a record low. The increase in eviction initiations in 2022-23 is moving towards the levels observed pre-pandemic but is still 63% lower than 2019-20. Damages too are still substantially lower than pre-pandemic levels (56% down on 2019-20). Personal injury (up 12%) and repossession (up by 14%) recorded the lowest increases between 2021-22 and 2022-23 (see section 3.2 for more information).

The number of initiated cases at the sheriff courts were stable at around 72,000 for the first three years since 2013-14, reaching a peak of 75,600 in 2017-18 then fluctuated in recent years (the figure excludes summary applications which are however included in Figure 1 repossessions) (Table 1 & Figure 3). Cases in the Court of Session saw a more fluctuating trend.

In the following sections we examine these trends further in the context of the reforms of civil courts proceedings discussed in Court reforms.

A bar chart showing the changes in procedures used on cases in response to court reforms. Cases moved to simple procedure and Sheriff Personal Injury Court, with small claims nearly replaced by simple procedure. Summary cause and Court of Session volumes decreased as a result.

2.1 Courts and procedures

In 2022-23, 54,660 cases were initiated in the sheriff courts and 53,512 were disposed. This represents a 14% increase in initiations and a 13% increase in disposals on the previous year (Table 3).

However, the increase in initiations was not uniform across all procedures in the sheriff courts. The numbers of ordinary cause procedures increased by 1% from 2021-22, with simple procedure (16%) and summary cause (72%) also increasing. There were no small claims initiations as they have been replaced by simple procedure.

Phase one simple procedure saw 27,030 cases initiated, and 27,852 disposed of. There was a 16% increase in initiated cases from 2021-22, while disposals were up by 20%.

The simple procedure has absorbed all small claims and nearly all summary cause cases for debt and damages actions (Table 12 and Table 19).

A further 4,129 cases were initiated in the national Sheriff Personal Injury Court, a 24% increase on 2021-22 (Table 18). Many of the cases pursued in the Sheriff Personal Injury Court would likely have been initiated at the Court of Session, which has seen a fall in the number of cases initiated since the institution of the specialised court (Table 1).

While business levels have increased by 13% across all courts since 2021-22, the number of cases initiated at the Court of Session decreased by a similar margin of 13%, to 2,154 in 2022-23.

Combined, the simple procedure and Sheriff Personal Injury Court accounted for 51% of all civil court business, slightly higher than the levels in 2021-22 (49%).

The relative costs of these procedures is provided on the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service website.

2.2 Judicial review

The Court of Session deals with judicial review. This is a specialised type of court procedure that can be used to challenge the way a person or body with power or authority has made a decision if no other remedy is possible.

There were 258 judicial review cases initiated in 2022-23, a 28% increase on 2021-22 (Table 25). Between 2015-16 and 2016-17 there was a large decrease, explained in part due to a rise in number of judicial reviews in the preceding year, ahead of the reforms specified in the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. The number of judicial reviews initiated at the Petition Department of the Court of Session has been variable over time.

2.3 Appeals

Sheriff Appeal Court (Civil)

In 2022-23, 328 cases were initiated and 166 disposed of (Table 26). Compared to 2021-22, the number of initiated cases increased by 74% while disposed cases increased by 30%.

Prior to January 2016, appeals would have been directed to the Court of Session, thereby entailing higher costs and possibly taking longer to determine. There has been a decrease in the appeals made from the sheriff courts, but numbers are small: for the last five years there were 21, 21, 9, 12 and 10 respectively (Table S8 Supplementary statistics tables). All the years correspond to when the Sheriff Appeal Court operated for full financial years.

Appeals from Court of Session to the UK Supreme Court

In 2022-23, 13 civil law applications were initiated under the provisions for bringing appeals to the UK Supreme Court (Table 27). During this period, 13 applications were disposed of by the Inner House of the Court of Session (none granted, 10 refused and three withdrawn).

In 2022-23, of the 16 cases disposed of by the Supreme Court for permission to appeal (having been initially refused by the Inner House in Scotland), one was granted and 15 were refused.