To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was spent on (a) magistrates courts and (b) administration of magistrates courts in (i) England, (ii) London and (iii) each London borough in each year since 1997. (166932)

HMCS was formed on 1 April 2005 by the merger of the Court Service and 42 magistrates areas.

Following the creation of HMCS the accounting records of the Court Service were archived and accessing them to provide the information back to 1997 would be disproportionately expensive for the Department. Information is not recorded centrally on a London borough basis and to obtain this information would be disproportionately expensive.

Expenditure on magistrates courts and the administrative costs of magistrates courts available since the inception of HMCS, have been provided in the following table: