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| Judicial review statistics: how many cases are there and what are they about? | Judicial review statistics: how many cases are there and what are they about? |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Judicial review statistics are suddenly controversial. The government wants to restrict access to judicial review - which is where you can challenge an official body's decision if you think they handled it illegally. | Judicial review statistics are suddenly controversial. The government wants to restrict access to judicial review - which is where you can challenge an official body's decision if you think they handled it illegally. |
| David Cameron said today at the CBI that cases had gone through the roof. | David Cameron said today at the CBI that cases had gone through the roof. |
| Back in 1998 there were four and a half thousand applications for review and that number almost tripled in a decade. Of course some are well-founded as we saw with the West Coast mainline decision. But let's face it: so many are completely pointless. Last year, an application was around 5 times more likely to be refused than granted. | Back in 1998 there were four and a half thousand applications for review and that number almost tripled in a decade. Of course some are well-founded as we saw with the West Coast mainline decision. But let's face it: so many are completely pointless. Last year, an application was around 5 times more likely to be refused than granted. |
| And what is a judicial review? You can read more about Judicial Review here. Essentially, you can challenge a decision not because you think it was wrong but if you think it wasn't taken properly. | And what is a judicial review? You can read more about Judicial Review here. Essentially, you can challenge a decision not because you think it was wrong but if you think it wasn't taken properly. |
| Judicial review is a type of court proceeding in which a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body. In other words, judicial reviews are a challenge to the way in which a decision has been made, rather than the rights and wrongs of the conclusion reached. It is not really concerned with the conclusions of that process and whether those were 'right', as long as the right procedures have been followed. The court will not substitute what it thinks is the 'correct' decision. | Judicial review is a type of court proceeding in which a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body. In other words, judicial reviews are a challenge to the way in which a decision has been made, rather than the rights and wrongs of the conclusion reached. It is not really concerned with the conclusions of that process and whether those were 'right', as long as the right procedures have been followed. The court will not substitute what it thinks is the 'correct' decision. |
| A recent example, quoted by Cameron, is Virgin Rail's case against the government's decision to hand the West Coast mainline franchise to First Group. | A recent example, quoted by Cameron, is Virgin Rail's case against the government's decision to hand the West Coast mainline franchise to First Group. |
| The government plans to: | The government plans to: |
| Reduce the time limit when people can bring cases. | Reduce the time limit when people can bring cases. |
| Charge more for reviews so people think twice about time-wasting. | Charge more for reviews so people think twice about time-wasting. |
| And instead of giving hopeless cases up to four bites of the cherry to appeal a decision, we will halve that to two | And instead of giving hopeless cases up to four bites of the cherry to appeal a decision, we will halve that to two |
| We've extracted the judicial review statistics from the Ministry of Justice Judicial and Court Statistics, and we've managed to get the data going back to 2004 from the official papers archive. Thanks to Data thanks to Christopher Hood and Ruth Dixon, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford and a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust we now have the data back to the 1970s. | |
| Last year there were more judicial review applications than ever before - 11,200, compared to 4,207 in 2004. The vast majority of these - as they are every year - are asylum cases, where judicial review is often used as a last resort before deportation happens. | Last year there were more judicial review applications than ever before - 11,200, compared to 4,207 in 2004. The vast majority of these - as they are every year - are asylum cases, where judicial review is often used as a last resort before deportation happens. |
| Not all applications for judicial review are dealt with immediately - those where it's an emergency have priority and some just take a while. This is how 2011 broke down. | Not all applications for judicial review are dealt with immediately - those where it's an emergency have priority and some just take a while. This is how 2011 broke down. |
| And of those that do get through the process, only a very few actually win when it comes to a decision. In 2011, it was 174 - that's 16 out of every 1,000 cases. | And of those that do get through the process, only a very few actually win when it comes to a decision. In 2011, it was 174 - that's 16 out of every 1,000 cases. |
| The full data is below - what can you do with it? | The full data is below - what can you do with it? |
| Data summary | Data summary |
| Judicial review statistics | Judicial review statistics |
| Click heading to sort table. Download this data | Click heading to sort table. Download this data |
| SOURCE: Ministry of Justice Judicial and Court Statistics for individual years | SOURCE: Ministry of Justice Judicial and Court Statistics for individual years |
| Download the data | Download the data |
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