The Changing Face of Civil Judicial Statistics Scotland

Jules Goodlet-Rowley

5th March 2012

Contents

• Structure of the civil courts

• Civil Judicial Statistics Review

• History of the civil publications

• ScotStat Civil group

• Data Mapping

• New publication in Nov 2012

Structure of the civil courts

• Court of Session based in Edinburgh

• 49 sheriff courts across Scotland, grouped into six sheriffdoms

Background• Publication suspended after

Civil Judicial Statistics Scotland 2002 – lack of precision in the definition of data items – inconsistency across the 49 sheriff courts – data unreliable and potentially misleading– Top level initiation figures fine and can be

used to produce a long scale trend• Disposal data not reliable

• Splits between procedural levels not reliable

Where does the data come from?

• Data taken from the live court recording system run by the Scottish Court Service (SCS)

• Highly complex and highly varied set of data – large variety of case types and procedural

outcomes that can be pursued– Extract run on a monthly basis and sent to SG for

analysis– 49 sheriff courts = 49 different recording system

= 49 potential ways of doing things

Limitations of data

• Main purpose of CMS is to keep track of court cases – data for statistics is secondary to this

• Data from Court of Session and 49 sheriff courts – differences in local practices can lead to some inconsistencies in data

• Classifying cases into specific types isn't always straightforward - some overlap between case types

• Not able to provide statistics on ancillary craves

Civil Judicial Statistics Review• Scottish Court Service and SG worked

together to address data quality issues– Civil Judicial Statistics Review project– Long running– Improved data quality– Consistent data recording between courts

• Improved guidance• Improvements to their case management system

(CMS)– Improvements to the civil courts recording

system– Data from project available from April 2011.

Civil Judicial Statistics Scotland

• Publication reinstated in December 2010– 2008/09 and 2009/10 published together– Interim data

• 2nd publication released October 2011– Based on the 2009-10 publication but…

• Major changes to the format• Included information from other sources

What was different from last publication?

• Thematic layout and improved sign posting• Increased use of contextual information:

– Results from Scottish Crime and Justice Survey included

– Scottish Legal Aid– Mid-year population estimates – Court structure diagram

• Extra tables:– Supplementary time series tables (2008-09 to 2010-

11) published alongside publication– Interactive dataset published– Introduction of thematic tables e.g. debt

Interactive dataset• Overall number of cases Initiated/Disposed

– by sheriff court and sheriffdom– By procedure and sheriffdom

• Debt, Damages, Repossessions, Personal Injury– by procedure and sheriffdom – PI includes Court of Session data

• Family – by case type and sheriffdom

Presentation issues addressed

• Accessibility requirements– Colour scheme chosen to maximise

accessibility – Text now left-aligned rather than justified– Publication made available as a Word file

• Improved presentation– Shading added to tables– Charts and diagrams added

New analysis –Differences across sheriffdoms

• Fewer cases were initiated and disposed in each sheriffdom in 2010-11– Largest fall in Lothian and Borders (24% fewer cases

initiated, 24% fewer cases disposed)– Smallest change in cases initiated seen in Grampian,

Highlands and Islands (down 12%)– Smallest change in cases disposed seen in North

Strathclyde (down 9%)

• Glasgow and Strathkelvin has dealt with the most cases per 1,000 population, with around 30% more than any other sheriffdom

Differences across SheriffdomsNumber of cases initiated in 2010-11 per 1,000 population

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Grampian,Highlands and

Islands

Tayside, Centraland Fife

Lothian andBorders

North Strathclyde SouthStrathclyde,

Dumfries andGalloway

Glasgow andStrathkelvin

Sheriffdom

Illustration of the different type of business in the civil courts

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

Debt Repossession Family Personal Injury Other

Nu

mb

er

of

ca

se

s in

itia

ted

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Scottish Crime and Justice Survey

• Respondents were asked about their experiences of problems in different areas of their life in the three years prior to interview. – grouped into four different areas:

• Home, family or living arrangements; • Money, finance or anything paid for; • Unfair treatment; • Health and well-being.

Scottish Crime and Justice Survey – 2010/11

• Almost three in ten (27%) adults had experienced at least one of the civil law problems asked about in the last three years.– 16% of adults had experienced problems with home,

family or living arrangements; – 12% had experienced problems with money, finance

or things they had paid for; – 6% had been treated unfairly in some respect; – 6% had experienced health or well-being problems.

ScotStat Civil Group

• The objective of the Civil Justice group is:– Through liaison between users and providers

of statistics on civil justice: • to identify the key strategic statistical information

required by users; • and to develop and implement a strategy for

prioritising and meeting these needs.

• First meeting was 8th December 2011 and minutes/papers online

Data Mapping

SCJS

Courts data

What happens in between?

Data Mapping

SCJS

Courts

Solve it themselves

Advice

Do nothing

Solve it

On going

Publication plans – 2012 onwards• Merge Civil Judicial Statistics Scotland with

Divorce and Dissolutions• Thematic tables as well as commentary• Expanded narrative• More information from other sources

– Citizens Advice Scotland– Scottish Legal Aid Board– Scottish Crime and Justice Survey– International comparisons– Information from other agencies/courts

• Scottish Land court• Tribunals

?

Discussion in tables• What data/information do you collect and

why?• Is there any way to share data/information

between organisations?• What data/information needs do you or

your organisation have?• If you had a wish list what would be on it

and what would be your highest priority?• Data gaps in the civil publications?• Comments on civil publications