The Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS) is an agency within the Department of Justice (DoJ) for Northern Ireland.
The NICTS carries out the court administrative functions previously undertaken by the Northern Ireland Court Service. The Court Service became part of the DoJ upon the devolution of policing and justice and its functions transferred to the Department by virtue of the Northern Ireland Court Service (Abolition and Transfer of Functions) Order (Northern Ireland) 2010 made under section 78 of the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002.
The principal functions of the NICTS are -
The criminal, civil and family justice systems are impartial and the numbers that are processed through the courts and the corresponding time for processing this information are related to a number of factors. For example, in relation to criminal cases this may include the seriousness of the offence, the availability of the witnesses and the complexity of individual cases. In relation to civil cases, this might include external factors such as the state of the economy in relation to mortgage cases received and disposed, the complexity of individual cases and the nature of individual claims.
The Judicial statistical publication provides statistical information in relation to the criminal, civil and family business conducted by the NICTS and the work of some associated offices.
The NICTS Quarterly business data bulletin was established in 2022 and provides provisional quarterly figures for Children Order and County, Crown, High and Magistrates’ Courts business. Prior to 2022, five individual quarterly publications were produced but following a user consultation of the content and format, these were amalgamated into a single document and the data simplified to provide users with more streamlined, targeted and user-friendly information.
The Mortgages: actions for possession bulletin has been published since 2013 and presents quarterly statistical information for cases received (i.e. writs and originating summonses issued), cases disposed and final orders made in respect of mortgages in the Chancery Division of the Northern Ireland High Court.
Full details of data relevance, accuracy, timeliness, accessibility, coherence, user need, cost and confidentiality for these reports are available in the accompanying background quality reports which can be found on the NICTS background quality report webpage. Details of the data quality checks and processes that are in place can be found in Quality Assurance of Administrative Data (QAAD) document published on the NICTS QAAD webpage. Policies relating to compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics is available on the DoJ website.
The Supreme Court
Final Court of Appeal on points of law for the United Kingdom in civil cases.
Final Court of Appeal on points of law for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in criminal cases.
The Court of Appeal
Deals with appeals in civil cases from the High Court and with appeals in criminal cases from the Crown Court.
Hears appeals on points of law from the county courts, magistrates’ courts and certain tribunals.
The High Court
Hears complex or important civil cases in three divisions (King’s Bench Division; Chancery Division; Family Division) and also appeals from county courts.
County Courts
(including Family Care Centres)
Hears a wide range of civil actions and also appeals from magistrates’ courts.
Small Claims Courts
Hears consumer claims and minor civil cases.
The Enforcement of Judgements Office
Enforces money and other judgements
The Crown Court
Hears all serious criminal cases.
Magistrates’ Courts
(including youth courts and family proceedings courts)
Conducts preliminary hearings in more serious criminal cases.
Hears and determines less serious criminal cases, cases involving youths and some civil and domestic cases, including family proceedings.
The primary aim of the Children Order is to promote the welfare of children. The Order creates a clear, practical and consistent code of law governing the care, protection and upbringing of children and the provision of services to them and their families. It confers concurrent jurisdiction on all three tiers of the courts (High Court, county courts and magistrates’ courts) so that subject to certain limited exceptions, any court can make any of the orders available under the Order. Under the Order the welfare of the child is the paramount consideration. When dealing with children, courts try to ensure that delay is avoided and may only make an order if to do so is better than making no order at all.
All Children Order matters are dealt with at Family Proceedings Courts (which are part of the magistrates’ courts), at Family Care Centres (which are part of the county courts) or in the Family Division (Office of Care & Protection) of the High Court. Where a Family Proceedings Court considers that the proceedings are exceptionally grave, important or complex, then the matter will be transferred to the Family Care Centre. Where the Family Care Centre believes that the case is suitable for hearing in the High Court it may in turn transfer it there.
Matters affecting children are split into Public and Private Law applications. Public Law applications are those brought by local authorities and include matters such as care, supervision and emergency protection orders. Private Law applications are those brought by private individuals, generally in connection with divorce or the parents’ separation. Order types include parental responsibility, residence, financial provision and article 8 contact applications.
Civil cases are commenced in the County Court if the value of the case is less than £30,000. This limit increased from £15,000 on the 25 February 2013. For claims concerning matrimonial property, compensation for criminal injuries or criminal damage to property however, there is no financial limit. The County Court also has jurisdiction to hear applications for adoptions and undefended divorces and for applications for intoxicating liquor licences and certificates of registration for clubs. In addition to its original civil jurisdiction, the County Court hears appeals under a number of statutory provisions from the magistrates’ courts or from other tribunals.
While County Courts can deal with a wide range of cases, the most common ones are -
The County Court also deals with small claims. In general, a small claim is one where the value of the claim is not more than £5,000 (prior to May 2011 it was £2,000, and from May 2011 to October 2022 it was £3,000). The most common types of claim dealt with in the Small Claims Court are -
All claims arising from regulated credit agreements must be started in the county court, whatever their value.
The Crown Court has exclusive jurisdiction to try offences charged on indictment. Offences tried on indictment are more serious offences. The Lady Chief Justice is President of the Crown Court and the Lords Justices of Appeal, High Court judges and county court judges all sit in the Crown Court.
Trial on indictment in the Crown Court follows after the accused has been returned for trial at committal proceedings in a magistrates’ court. The Public Prosecution Service is responsible for preparing a formal document called an indictment, stating the charges which the accused will face. The matters are then tried before a judge sitting with a jury.
The Crown Court normally sits at seven different venues throughout Northern Ireland and the trial of non-scheduled offences takes place at the sitting of the Crown Court determined by the district judge who committed the accused. This is usually the Crown Court acting for the county court division in which the offence is alleged to have been committed.
Appeal from the Crown Court is to the Court of Appeal. If a person wishes to appeal against conviction on a question of fact, the permission of either the Crown Court judge or the Court of Appeal is required. To appeal against sentence he or she needs the leave of the Court of Appeal.
All persons convicted of a scheduled offence tried on indictment can appeal against conviction to the Court of Appeal on any grounds and without leave. This automatic right of appeal is a safeguard built into the system because in these cases there is no jury.
The prosecution has no right to appeal against the acquittal of a defendant who has been tried on indictment. The Attorney-General can refer a point of law to the Court of Appeal for its opinion, but even if the Court of Appeal considers that the trial judge made an error of law resulting in an acquittal, the acquittal still stands. The reference and subsequent ruling is useful in guiding the prosecution of future trials.
The High Court sits at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast and comprises three Divisions - the Chancery, King’s Bench and Family.
The Chancery Division deals with the following four main areas of business –
Chancery office business relates mainly to disputes involving land and property. These include disputes between vendors, purchasers, landlords and tenants; mortgage repossession actions; trespass; right of way; construction of a lease; and squatters.
Most actions begin with the issue of a claim or originating proceedings by the claimant against the defendant.
The Chancery section also deals with disputes involving copyright, partnerships, patents, execution of trusts, charities, inheritance and the administration of estates.
The Bankruptcy Office deals with all matters relating to insolvency. These include applications to set aside statutory demands, petitions (by creditors and debtors) and voluntary arrangements.
If a person cannot repay the debts that they owe, they may be made bankrupt. The most common situations in which a person may be made bankrupt are at the request of someone to whom they owe money (a creditor’s petition) and at their own request (a debtor’s petition).
The Companies Office deals with all matters relating to the Companies Order including winding up petitions, insolvent partnerships and disqualification of directors.
If the Court makes an order to wind up a company it means that the company has gone into compulsory liquidation. The court will then appoint an Official Receiver (OR) to act as liquidator for the company.
The principal business assigned to the Probate Office includes Contentious and non-contentious Probate applications, leading to the issue of a Grant of Representation in the estate of the deceased person, to facilitate the gathering in and distribution of the assets of the deceased’s estate.
The King’s Bench Division comprises of a number of business areas - the Writ, Appeals & Lists Office; Judicial Reviews Office; Commercial Office; Bail Office and HM Court of Appeal Office – which are collectively referred to as The Central Office.
The principal business dealt with by the King’s Bench Division is:
The King’s Bench Division business areas have the following four discrete functions:
The primary function of the office is to manage the ‘Writ Process’ for actions in the King’s Bench Division, from commencement of proceedings until the trial of the action or final determination. This involves a review process which is initiated approximately nine months after the last notification by a defendant that they intend to dispute the claim. The aim of the reviews is to progress cases to trial by dealing with matters between the parties which may delay the case being set down for trial.
The office is also responsible for providing adequately trained staff to act as Court registrars in all King’s Bench actions and appeals.
The King’s Bench Division deals with claims for damages that are large value, complex, or both, including libel and slander actions which may require a jury.
The lower threshold for claims to the High Court increased from £15,000 to £30,000 on 25 February 2013. Cases previously received into the Writ Office for claims between £15,000 and £30,000 may now be processed by the County Court.
The office also has overall responsibility for compiling the daily court list. This involves collating business listed across all the High Court Divisions on a daily basis. The listing officer must ensure that business is allocated to appropriate Judges and that adequate courtrooms are available.
Business relating to a ‘business or commercial transaction’ such as building contracts, sales of goods, insurance, banking or carriage of goods, may be assigned to the Commercial List, if so directed by the Commercial judge. One of the ten puisne judges has been assigned as the Commercial judge. The judge carries out regular reviews of actions entered into the Commercial List to ensure that the action is progressed to trial in a timely manner.
Judicial Reviews are cases where the court considers if the decision reached by an inferior court, Tribunal, public body or Government Minister followed the proper procedure. The applicant must first apply to the Court for leave to apply for Judicial Review if leave is granted then the applicant has 14 days to apply for a full hearing of the matter.
This office deals with repeat bail applications, i.e. an application to release a defendant from custody, until his/her next appearance in Court, subject sometimes to security being given and/or compliance with certain conditions.
This office deals with all work associated with applications made to HM Court of Appeal, listing of cases for trial and transcripts.
The Family Division comprises the following four key business areas:
The Matrimonial Office deals with the following -
To obtain a decree of divorce the marriage must be proved to have broken down irretrievably with proof of one or more of the following facts:
No petition may be made for divorce within the first year of marriage.
A decree of nullity of marriage is granted where the petitioner proves that the marriage is either void or voidable.
A void marriage is one that is legally invalid because, for example:
A voidable marriage is one which is legal but may be nullified by order of the court because, for example:
An alternative to divorce is a decree of judicial separation. This does not dissolve the marriage but absolves the parties from the obligation to live together. This procedure might, for instance, be used if religious beliefs forbid or discourage divorce.
During or after a divorce, the annulment of a marriage (nullity) or judicial separation, there may still be a need for the court to settle disputes over money or property. The court can make a financial order, known as ancillary relief, and may deal with the sale or transfer of property; maintenance payments (for example weekly- or monthly-maintenance); and a lump sum payment, a pension sharing or attachment order, or both.
A person (the ‘petitioner’) may apply to end (‘dissolve’) their civil partnership if they have been in the partnership for at least a year. There are 3 main steps to ending a civil partnership:
The principal business assigned to this office is -
The principal business assigned to this office includes applications in relation to the Guardianship and Wardship of children, adoption applications and applications under the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.
The Family Homes and Domestic Violence (NI) Order 1998, is designed to offer civil protection against domestic violence. The 1998 Order provides a single set of remedies which are available in all court tiers. The two main remedies created were the non-molestation order and the occupation order. Both can be applied for by way of an ex-parte application, that is without the respondent or alleged perpetrator of the violence being present. The number of these type of applications are relatively small in the High Court, and are usually dealt with at this court tier, as they are linked to other proceedings being held in the High Court.
Responsibility for the management of the property and affairs of people in Northern Ireland who, through mental disorder, are incapable of managing their own financial affairs is vested in the High Court under the provisions of Part VIII of the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986. The ‘Patient’ is the name given by the Order to a person who is suffering from mental disorder and whose financial affairs are subject to the Court’s control. A ‘Controller’ is the name given to those appointed by court order to manage a Patient’s financial affairs.
The Office of Care and Protection, commonly referred to as OCP, is the department of the High Court in which administrative work relating to a Patient’s case is dealt with under the supervision of the Master (Care and Protection). The Master is the judicial officer of the Court who is authorised to exercise any discretion, power or other functions of the Court and who may also, in particular cases, refer a question to the judge for decision.
A Controller is a person appointed by the Court to deal with the day-to-day management of the Patient’s financial affairs. They may be a relative, a friend, or perhaps a professional adviser. If there is no one else suitable or willing to act, an officer of the Court or the Official Solicitor can be appointed in the last resort.
The OCP reviews accounts operated by the Controller (on behalf of the Patient) on an annual basis and is also responsible for the registration of Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPA).
The Official Solicitor (OS) is an independent statutory office holder appointed under section 75 of the Judicature (NI) Act 1978 (as amended by section 103 of the Courts Act 2003).
The OS has a wide range of functions primarily necessitating acting as next friend, guardian ad litem or ‘Controller’ of last resort for certain minors or adults (known as ‘patients’) who lack mental capacity to manage their own financial affairs by reason of ‘mental disorder’ under Part VIII of the Mental Health (NI) Order 1986 (‘the 1986 Order’). The OS also represents the interests of minors in a range of legal proceedings at the request of the judiciary.
A magistrates’ court (other than a youth court or family proceedings court) is presided over by a district judge (magistrates’ court) sitting alone. The present complement of district judges (magistrates’ court) is twenty-one. The magistrates’ court hears and determines less serious criminal cases, cases involving youth and some civil and domestic cases including family proceedings.
The vast majority of all criminal offences dealt with in Northern Ireland are tried summarily in a magistrates’ court. A significant number of these offences are offences against Road Traffic Orders, such as the Road Traffic (NI) Order 1995 and the Road Traffic Offenders (NI) Order 1996, sometimes described as the ‘penalty points’ Order.
Magistrates’ courts also deal with offences where the defendant can choose trial by jury but decides to have their case heard in the magistrates’ court. If the defendant chooses trial by jury, the case will be passed on to the Crown Court. It is estimated that where the defendant has a choice between summary trial and trial on indictment, approximately three out of four cases are dealt with summarily. This is mainly because this mode of trial is much quicker and the sentencing powers of a district judge (magistrates’ court) are more restricted than those of a Crown Court judge - the most serious punishment which a district judge (magistrates’ court) can impose is 12 months in prison, unless consecutive terms of imprisonment are imposed for more than one offence, when the limit is extended to 18 months.
The youth court deals with young people who have committed criminal offences and who are older than 10 years of age, but younger than 18 years of age. The youth court is part of the magistrates’ court and cases are generally heard before a panel of three persons, a salaried district judge (magistrates’ court) and two specially-trained, fee-paid lay magistrates. Although the youth court can deal with the full range of criminal offences (apart from murder), if a young person is charged with a very serious offence, which in the case of an adult would be punishable with 14 years’ imprisonment or more, the youth court can commit them for trial at the Crown Court. In addition to hearing criminal proceedings the youth court also hears proceedings relating to the care, protection and control of juveniles.
Magistrates’ courts can deal with the following limited number of civil cases:
These publications use administrative data primarily sourced from the Integrated Court Operations System (ICOS), a live operating system implemented across the NICTS over a two year period from 2005 to 2007 and used in each court tier to process every part of the court business from receipt of payments through to the production of final orders made. The data are input into this system on a daily basis by court clerks, and this information is checked and confirmed by another member of staff to ensure the data entries are correct.
It was introduced in the High Court and county court in 2005 with these sections of the publication having been completed using ICOS since 2005. Caution should be taken therefore when comparing information from publications prior to this.
ICOS was then introduced in the Crown and criminal magistrates’ courts during 2006; civil and family modules were completed during 2007. Caution should be taken when comparing figures in the Crown and criminal magistrates’ court sections prior to 2006 and in the civil and family magistrates’ court and Children Order sections prior to 2007.
If you would like further advice on the differences between current figures and previous years, please email statistics@courtsni.gov.uk.
Additional data are also used to compile the information presented in the miscellaneous section (Section 9) of the Judicial statistics publication. This includes data from the Judgment Enforcement Management System (JEMS), a specially designed system used by the Enforcement of Judgments Office to capture all applications to enforce. It also includes data from the Coroners Service for Northern Ireland and the Social Security and Child Support Commissioners who use manual Excel spreadsheets to record their information. Like ICOS, the information is recorded on these databases on a daily basis. It is then validated internally by staff in these offices who check that the system and databases hold the correct information.
Statisticians within the NICTS also validate the data provided from these systems to ensure that they are robust. They recognise however that as the information is input manually there is the potential for errors to occur.
An overview of the data used in the Judicial statistics; Quarterly provisional figures; and Mortgages: action for possession bulletins is available in the Quality Assurance of Administrative Data (QAAD) and Background Quality Report (BQR) documents which can be found on the NICTS QAAD webpage and NICTS BQR webpage respectively.
The statistics and research team receive a download of information on a monthly basis from ICOS. The information is downloaded using Power BI, which extracts all the relevant data from ICOS into text files which are refreshed with up to date information each weekend. The text files are downloaded by the statisticians on a monthly basis, using a weekly rotation based on each court tier, as shown below –
Week 1 – Magistrates’ Court civil and family
business areas;
Week 2 – Crown Court and magistrates’ court criminal
business areas;
Week 3 – High Court including King’s Bench, Bails,
Chancery, Judicial Reviews, Matrimonial and Wardship & Adoption
business areas; County Court all business areas; and
Week 4 – Children Order business area; all court
sittings information.
The text files are downloaded onto a secure internal facility that only specified statistical personnel can access. The data contained in the files are identified only by numbers; names and addresses are not held. These statistical files are not transmitted outside the branch.
The statisticians import the data into a program called SPSS (Statistics Package for Social Sciences) which is used to validate the data, identify potential errors and ensure it is reliable and robust. The program includes over 100 checks against each business area and includes -
The validation program runs in unison with the download program, for example in week 1 the magistrates’ civil and family information is downloaded and the corresponding validation checks are run on the newly downloaded information. This pattern follows for all the court tiers and business areas.
The validation program is designed to produce user friendly tables highlighting the potential problems with data in the title of the table, and the case numbers of the records affected. A validation report is compiled for each court venue and circulated to the Case Progression Officer for amendment. Each court division has a Case Progression Officer who is responsible for -
The Case Progression Officer is given a two week period from the date the validation report issues until all records are amended on ICOS. This ensures that the corrections are updated before the next download of files. After the files have been refreshed each weekend all the data is then downloaded again (in accordance with the schedule) and this new download will reflect the amendments made as a result of the validation reports. If any errors have not been corrected, they will continue to appear in the validation reports until the necessary amendments are made on ICOS.
The statisticians then ensure that all validations in relation to the reporting period are amended prior to publication. Once these amendments have been checked, computer syntax is used to produce the tables in this publication.
The Judicial statistics; Quarterly provisional figures; and Mortgages: action for possession bulletins are published on the NICTS Judicial statistics webpage; the NICTS Business data webpage; and the NICTS Mortgages: action for possession webpage respectively.
The Judicial statistics publication can also be accessed through the NISRA Judicial statistics publication page on gov.uk.
The Quarterly provisional figures bulletin can also be accessed through the NISRA Quarterly provisonal figures publication page on gov.uk.
The Mortgages: action for possession bulletin can also be accessed through the NISRA Mortgages: action for possession publication page on gov.uk.
The information contained within the publications is of interest to a wide variety of people including NICTS policy officials in their role assisting and advising the Minister for Justice to discharge their duties. It is also used to answer NI Assembly and Justice committee questions and to inform requests and queries from other Government organisations, the media, academics and the general public, including students conducting research into Justice issues.
The principal users however are internal business managers and court administrators.The publications and further analysis of the data provide an evidence base that is used in a number of NICTS policies, strategies and reviews. Examples include -
Consultation on the review of scale costs and recent practice and procedural changes
Consultation on proposals for the rationalisation of the court estate
NICTS data are also used within other NI departments and their agencies. For example -
The NICTS also receives approximately 100 Assembly Questions (either written or oral) and Freedom of Information requests and around 250 statistical enquiries from various sources each year. These include requests for further breakdowns by specific offence codes, specific legislation and court outcomes.
In order that the information provided in these publications are accessible to all groups of people, it is available on the NICTS statistics webpage in PDF and ODS formats. Requests for the information in different formats can be made by emailing statistics@courtsni.gov.uk, where your request will be considered.
Direct comparisons can be made for data across all court tiers over an eleven year period, as the ICOS roll out was complete by 2007, except for Table 1 within both reports and the Children Order worksheet in the excel tables, rows 48 to 50. The following should also be noted if comparing across publications.
The recording of orders made within the Children Order courts have been reported at the participant level since 2007, and the introduction of ICOS. Children Order data in relation to orders made, is recorded on ICOS at the application level. The data is then extracted based on the participants selected on ICOS which indicate all relevant parties to whom the order applies.
Following an operational review of recording practices surrounding the selection of participants to whom orders apply in November 2013, a training program was implemented by operational colleagues. This training was delivered in early 2014 to ensure all relevant participants were being consistently applied on ICOS. This has had a knock-on effect on the numbers of own motion, interim and final orders being reported within the Children Order courts, with figures showing large increases since 2014.
Following a consultation with users, a change in the reporting of the orders being made within the Children Order courts from the participant level to the application level from 2016 onwards was introduced. This change was implemented to overcome issues surrounding the inconsistent recording of participants to whom the orders apply and provide more user friendly data in terms of relating the orders made to the applications being received and disposed. Application level data counts distinct orders made during the court process.
This new methodology has been introduced to cover own motion, interim and final orders and will affect the numbers reported. The numbers of orders made will not be comparable with those published in Children Order Bulletins prior to 2016. To assist with comparisons over time, a back series of orders data from April 2007 to the end of 2015 are available on the Court and Tribunals Childrens Orders webpage. Care should also be taken when comparing data trends before and after April 2007, when ICOS was introduced as the source for Children Order data.
Care should be taken when comparing data trends before and after 2005, when ICOS was introduced as the source for the majority of County Court data.
Additionally, due to on-going changes to the legal jurisdiction of the County Court, users should be cautious of comparing trends in small claims and ordinary civil bills. Changes made to the upper limit of small claims in May 2011 (from £2,000 to £3,000) and in October 2022 (from £3,000 to £5,000) will have resulted in some claims that would have previously been ordinary civil bills becoming small claims. Also, changes to jurisdiction to increase the upper limit of ordinary civil bills during February 2013 (from £15,000 to £30,000) will have resulted in some cases that were previously High Court writs becoming ordinary civil bills.
Due to on-going changes to the legal jurisdiction of the County court, users should be cautious of comparing trends in King’s Bench writs. Changes to jurisdiction to increase the upper limit of ordinary civil bills from 21 February 2013 (from £15,000 to £30,000) will have resulted in some cases that were previously High Court writs becoming ordinary civil bills.
Changes to practice within the judicial system in general, and the Magistrates’ Court in particular, may impact upon business volumes presented in this bulletin. One example would be the introduction of Penalty Notices for Disorder on 6 June 2012. These were new diversionary disposals aimed at dealing with minor offences as a direct alternative to a prosecution before the court. The impact of this change means that offences previously dealt with by the Magistrates’ Court are no longer received in court, but are rather dealt with out of court, contributing to the decrease in Magistrates’ Court business over this period.
Before September 2009 all the courthouses opened from 9am to 5pm from Monday to Friday each week (excluding public holidays). In September 2009, 5 of the 23 courthouses became “hearing centres” because they were not fully utilised when the courts weren’t sitting. From then these courthouses (Bangor, Larne, Limavady, Magherafelt and Strabane) opened on the day that court hearings took place, and remained closed the rest of the time. When open the hearing centres offered all of the usual services but when closed, people had to access these services at other courthouses, on the telephone or over the internet. In March 2013 two of these hearing centres were closed permanently - Larne and Bangor - and the court business for these two venues was moved to Ballymena and Newtownards respectively. Caution should therefore be taken when comparing figures with preceding years for Larne and Bangor courthouses. More information on the consultation exercise undertaken can be found in the Proposals for the rationalisation of the court estate.
On the 31st October 2016, a single County Court division called ‘The County Court of Northern Ireland’ replaced the seven existing County Court divisions. Relevant data contained in the publications were published by County Court division up until 2016.
The court structure of Northern Ireland does not equate to that in England, Wales, Scotland or the Republic of Ireland. Direct comparisons between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and Ireland therefore cannot be made. Further information for the other jurisdictions can be found at:
The following web links contain details of information that relates to other Northern Ireland criminal justice agencies:
A glossary of terms can be found on the glossary of terms webpage