The Justice Minister has revealed that there were more than 2,000 additional active criminal cases in the District Court to the end of March 2019, and that, on average, they take several days more to dispose of.

In answer to a written question from National’s Courts spokesperson Chris Penk, the minister Andrew Little replied that the number of active criminal cases in the District Court as at 30 April 2019 was 36,642, up from 34,078 at 30 April 2018.

In reply to another question from Mr Penk, Mr Little replied that the average number of days it took to dispose of a criminal case in the year to 31 March 2019 was 118.5 days, up from 111.9 by the same date in 2018.

The two questions formed a series of questions by Mr Penk on related matters last month.

In another he asks how many active judge-alone cases were dealt with in the District Court, to which Mr Little replied that there were 32,255 in the year ending 31 March 2019, up from 30,268 to the same date the year previous.

In a related question, Mr Little said the average number of days taken to dispose of judge-alone criminal cases in the court were 108.3 days to the end of March 2019, compared to 101.9 to the same date in 2018.