List of courts in England and Wales

This is a list of courts in England and Wales. For information about the different types of court see Courts of England and Wales.

The Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey

Civil courts

The highest appellate court is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, followed by the Court of Appeal. The highest court in which originating process may be issued is the High Court of England and Wales. The High Court is based at the Royal Courts of Justice in London and in district registries elsewhere.

England

Wales

County Court

When the county court system was created as a result of the County Courts Act 1846, there were 491 county courts in England and Wales. Since the Crime and Courts Act 2013 came into force, there has been one County Court in England and Wales, sitting simultaneously in many different locations.

Criminal courts

Crown Court

The Crown Court deals with serious criminal charges and with less serious charges where the accused has elected trial at the Crown Court instead of trial at a magistrates' court. The Crown Court also hears appeals against conviction and sentence from magistrates.[1] There are 91 locations in England and Wales at which the Crown Court regularly sits.[2] Crown Court centres are designated in one of three tiers: first-tier centres are visited by High Court judges for criminal and also for civil cases (in the District Registry of the High Court); second-tier centres are visited by High Court judges for criminal work only; and third-tier centres are not normally visited by High Court judges. High Court judges hear 2% of cases at the Crown Court, but 27% of the most serious (Class 1) cases. Circuit judges and recorders sit at all three tiers, hearing 88% and 10% of the cases respectively. When the Crown Court is conducting a trial, the judge sits with a jury of twelve; when hearing appeals from magistrates, the judge sits with two (or sometimes four) magistrates.[1]

The Crown Court system was established by the Courts Act 1971, which came into force on 1 January 1972, following the recommendations of a Royal Commission chaired by Lord Beeching. Previously, criminal cases that were not dealt with by magistrates were heard by assize courts and quarter sessions courts, in a system that had changed little in the preceding centuries.[3] The Crown Court system is administered by Her Majesty's Courts Service, an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Justice. England is divided into six regions by HMCS (London, Midlands, North East, North West, South East and Western), with the whole of Wales forming a seventh region.[4]

Section 78 of the Supreme Court Act 1981 provides that the Crown Court can conduct business at any location in England and Wales, in accordance with directions given by the Lord Chancellor.[5] This power is sometimes used to enable court sittings to take place away from one of the regular Crown Court venues. For example, in 2007, a sitting of the Crown Court was held at one of the oldest court buildings in England or Wales, the former courthouse in Beaumaris, Anglesey, which was built in 1614 and closed in 1997.[6]

Magistrates' courts

Andover Magistrates' Court

Bedford Magistrates' Court

Birmingham Magistrates' Court

Brighton Magistrates' Court

Crawley Magistrates' Court

Doncaster Magistrates' Court

Kidderminster Magistrates' Court

Nottingham Magistrates' Court

Llandudno Magistrates' Court

Sutton Magistrates' Court

Thames Magistrates' Court

Tower Bridge Magistrates' Court - now the Dixon Hotel

Accrington
Acton
Aldershot
Alton
Amersham
Andover
Ashford
Aylesbury
Banbury
Bangor
Barking and Dagenham
Barnet
Barnsley
Barnstaple
Barrow-in-Furness
Basildon
Basingstoke
Batley and Dewsbury
Bath
Bedford and Mid Beds
Belmarsh
Berwick upon Tweed
Beverley
Bexley
Bingley
Birmingham Law Courts
Bishop Auckland
Blackburn
Blackpool
Blandford Forum
Bodmin
Bolton
Boston
Bourne
Bournemouth
Bow Street Magistrates' Court
Bracknell
Bradford
Brent
Brentford
Bridgnorth and Telford
Bridlington
Bridport
Brighton
Bristol
Bromley
Bromsgrove and Redditch
Burnley
Burton upon Trent
Bury
Bury St Edmunds
Caernarfon
Caistor
Camberwell Green
Camborne
Cambridge
Cannock
Canterbury
Cardiff
Carlisle
Carmarthen
Ceredigion
Chatham
Chelmsford
Cheltenham
Chepstow
Cheshunt
Chester, Ellesmere Port and Neston
Chester-le-Street
Chichester
Chippenham
Chorley
Cirencester
City of London
Coalville
Colchester
Coleford
Consett
Corby
Coventry
Crawley
Cromer
Croydon
Cwmbran
Darlington
Dartford
Daventry
De Brycheiniog
De Maldwyn
Denbigh
Derby
Dolgellau
Doncaster
Dorking
Dover
Dudley
Durham
Ealing
East Berkshire
Eastbourne
Ely
Enfield
Epping
Exeter
Fareham
Feltham
Flax Bourton
Fleetwood
Flint
Folkestone
Furness
Gainsborough
Gateshead
Gloucester
Goole
Grantham
Grays
Great Yarmouth
Greenwich
Grimsby
Guildford
Guisborough
Halesowen
Halifax
Halton
Haringey
Harlow
Harrogate
Harrogate and Skipton
Harrow
Hartlepool
Harwich
Hastings
Hemel Hempstead
Hendon
Hereford
Hertford
High Peak
High Wycombe
Highbury Corner
Hinckley
Holyhead
Honiton
Horncastle
Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court
Horsham
Houghton-le-Spring
Huddersfield
Hull and Holderness
Huntingdon
Ilkeston
Ipswich
Isles of Scilly
Keighley
Kendal
Kettering
Kidderminster
King's Lynn
Kingston-upon-Hull
Kingston upon Thames
Knowsley
Lancaster
Launceston
Leamington Spa
Leeds District
Leicester
Leigh and Wigan
Lewes
Leyland
Lincoln
Liskeard
Liverpool
Llandudno
Llanelli
Llangefni
Long Sutton
Loughborough
Louth
Lowestoft
Ludlow
Luton and South Bedfordshire
Lyndhurst
Macclesfield
Maidenhead
Maidstone
Manchester City
Mansfield
Margate
Market Drayton
Market Harborough
Marylebone Road
Medway
Melton Mowbray
Mendip
Merthyr Tydfil
Mid Sussex
Middlesbrough
Mildenhall
Milton Keynes
Minehead
Mold
Newark and Southwell
Newcastle under Lyme
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newport (Isle of Wight)
Newport (South Wales)
Newton Abbot
Newton Aycliffe
North Avon
North East Derbyshire & Dales
North Pembrokeshire
North Sefton
North Tyneside
Northallerton and Richmond
Northampton
Norwich
Nottingham Magistrates' Court
Nuneaton
Okehampton
Oldham
Ormskirk
Oswestry
Oxford
Penrith
Pentonville
Penzance
Peterborough
Peterlee
Pickering
Plymouth
Pontefract
Poole
Portsmouth
Prestatyn
Preston
Pwllheli
Radnorshire and North Brecknock
Rawtenstall
Reading
Redbridge
Redditch
Redhill
Reedley
Retford
Richmond-upon-Thames
Rochdale
Rotherham
Rugby
Runcorn
Salford
Salisbury
Scarborough
Scunthorpe
Sedgemoor
Selby
Sevenoaks
Sheffield
Sherborne
Shrewsbury
Sittingbourne
Skegness
Sleaford
Snaresbrook
South Cheshire
South East Northumberland
South Pembrokeshire
South Sefton
South Somerset
South Tyneside
South Western
South Worcestershire
Southampton
Southend
Southern Derbyshire
Southport
Spalding
St Albans
St Helens
Stafford
Staines
Stamford
Stevenage
Stockport
Stoke-on-Trent
Stourbridge and Halesowen
Stratford
Stratford upon Avon
Stroud
Sudbury
Sunderland
Sutton
Swaffham
Swansea
Swindon
Tameside
Tamworth
Taunton
Teesside
Telford
Tewkesbury
Thames
Thetford (South Norfolk)
Torquay
Totnes
Towcester
Tower Bridge, now a hotel
Trafford
Tredegar
Truro
Tunbridge Wells
Uxbridge
Vale Royal
Wakefield
Walsall and Aldridge
Waltham Forest
Wantage
Wareham
Warley
Warrington
Watford
Wellingborough
Wells
Welshpool
West Berkshire
West Bromwich
West London
West Somerset
Weston-super-Mare
Wetherby
Weymouth
Whitby
Whitehaven
Widnes
Wigan and Leigh
Wimbledon
Wimborne
Wirral
Wisbech
Witham
Wolverhampton
Woodspring
Woolwich
Worcester
Workington
Worksop and Retford
Worthing
Wrexham
Wycombe
Yate
Yeovil
York

In addition, the youth courts are also a type of magistrates' court which deals with young people. Cases in a youth court are either dealt with by three magistrates or a single district judge, sitting alone.

References

"Judicial and Court Statistics 2007, Chapter 6" (PDF). Ministry of Justice. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-01. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
"Justice". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 4 December 2007. col. 1179W–1181W.
Zander, Michael (2007). Cases and Materials on the English Legal System. Cambridge University Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-521-67540-6.
"HMCS Framework Document" (PDF). HMCS. April 2008. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-11-16. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
Jackson, Richard Meredith; Spencer, J. R. (1989). Jackson's Machinery of Justice. Cambridge University Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-521-31767-2.
"Historic court reopens for a day". BBC News. 14 September 2007. Retrieved 2008-10-17.

External links

Court finder (Directgov, England and Wales)

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[Stats-1] "Judicial and Court Statistics 2007, Chapter 6" (PDF). Ministry of Justice. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-01. Retrieved 2008-10-16.

[2] "Justice". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 4 December 2007. col. 1179W–1181W.

[3] Zander, Michael (2007). Cases and Materials on the English Legal System. Cambridge University Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-521-67540-6.

[4] "HMCS Framework Document" (PDF). HMCS. April 2008. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-11-16. Retrieved 2008-10-16.

[5] Jackson, Richard Meredith; Spencer, J. R. (1989). Jackson's Machinery of Justice. Cambridge University Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-521-31767-2.

[6] "Historic court reopens for a day". BBC News. 14 September 2007. Retrieved 2008-10-17.