Supreme Court "thriving" despite COVID: annual report
The UK Supreme Court heard 60 appeals and delivered 56 judgments between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, its newly published annual report for 2021-22 discloses.
Justices also determined 200 permission to appeal applications. Alongside that work, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (“JCPC”) heard 51 appeals, gave 34 judgments and determined 78 permission to appeal applications.
The figures are slightly up on to 2020-21, when the Supreme Court heard 61 appeals, delivered 54 judgments and determined 175 permission to appeal applications, while the JCPC heard 41 appeals, delivered 31 judgments and determined 41 permission applications.
In his foreword Lord Reed, President of the court, explains that the court has focused on resilience during the pandemic and recovery after it. Despite “another challenging year”, the court has “managed to thrive despite the uncertainty that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented”.
The year saw a continued return to in-person hearings for most cases from July 2021 onwards, with the court offering virtual and hybrid hearings where parties have been unable to attend in person.
Lord Reed highlights the importance of public access to the court’s work. The report details that 1.2m people visited the court’s websites to find information or watch cases, while the number of in-person visitors to the court building has significantly increased again, and more than 280,000 people watched video content on the court’s YouTube channel.
The Supreme Court's net expenditure decreased slightly in 2021-22. The accounts show that together, the court and the JCPC incurred total expenditure of £13.838m during 2021-22 (£7.303m of which was judicial and staff costs), and recouped almost £7.620m in court fees, contributions from the UK court services, and other income.