| answer text |
<p>Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does not record the number
of applications to the civil and family courts which are deemed to be vexatious. However,
HMCTS does record the number of ‘totally without merit’ orders that are made following
an application being deemed as totally without merit. The data provided in this answer
relates to orders made when applications are deemed to be totally without merit.</p><p>
</p><p>HMCTS maintains a national database which lists all civil and family totally
without merit orders. The retention period for entries on the database is three years
and therefore only data relating to this period is set out in the table below. In
addition, the orders may relate to multiple applications and therefore the volume
of orders will not necessarily represent the number of applications received by HMCTS.</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Table One: Totally without merit orders made in the
last three years</strong>[1]</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Time period</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Number
of Totally Without Merit Orders made</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>1 March 2012
– 28 February 2013</p></td><td><p>2080</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>1 March 2013 – 28 February
2014</p></td><td><p>3004</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>1 March 2014 – 28 February 2015</p></td><td><p>1495</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p>HMCTS does not record the number of victims that have reported vexatious applications
or the nature of proceedings, including whether they relate to stalking or harassment.
In order to provide the information HMCTS would have to manually review each file
that relates to stalking and harassment claims. This information could only be provided
at disproportionate cost.</p><br /><p>[1] This data is internal HMCTS management information
and it is not subject to the same level of checking as Official Statistics.</p>
|
|
