Permission to appeal applications considered by UKSC down 11 per cent

The number of applications for permission to appeal considered by the justices decreased by 11 per cent to 192. There was a marked decrease in requests to bring appeals in criminal matters (from 19 in 2015/16 to five this year), family law (down from 18 to eight) and immigration law (36 to 25). Bucking this trend, there was an increase in the number of applications for the court to hear appeals about contract law (up from six to 12).

In considering those applications, the ‘grant rate’ of cases given permission to appeal increased slightly to 35 per cent (from 32 per cent in 2015/16). While there were more applications for permission to appeal in contract law cases, the grant rate decreased (from 50 per cent in 2015/16 to 20 per cent of applications in 2016/17), while the proportion of employment and planning cases accepted for a full hearing increased markedly (from 44 per cent to 66 per cent and 10 per cent to 55 per cent respectively).

Elsewhere in the report, the court notes that its hearing of the government’s appeal against the decision that it did not possess the power to trigger Brexit without parliamentary approval was a “truly exceptional” case that “has helped to draw attention to the work of the Court and… underline the Court’s place in the constitution”.