The Justice Ministry has welcomed data showing a further reduction in the number of pending court cases.

Results for the first six months of the year show substantial progress in both civil and criminal cases, it said.

With regard to civil cases, the number of cases decided when compared to the number of incoming cases remained consistent above 100%.

“This means that more cases are being decided, than initiated. The number of pending cases has decreased to 9,364, which is the smallest number of pending cases in history. This represents a decrease of 11% in the number of pending cases between June 2015 and June 2017.”

The Administrative Review Tribunal saw an increase in the clearance rate from 135% in 2016, to 211% in 2017.

As for criminal cases, positive results were achieved both in the courts of first instance as well as in the appellate courts, the ministry said, without giving details.

In the magistrates’ court, before which 95% of cases are presented, more cases were decided than the incoming number of cases. In the Criminal Court, the number of pending trials by jury has been reduced from 80 to 60 in two years.

The inferior appellate courts decided almost the same number of cases as the number of new ones.