Efficiency and productivity of district courts - Summary and recommendations
Document description
Central government has been working for a long time on reforming district courts. The reforms have included reducing the number of district courts from 96 to today’s 48. But despite the numerous years of work central government has devoted to improving the efficiency of district courts there are indications of inefficiencies. For example, a third of
the district courts (17) did not achieve the Government’s operational objectives for civil cases in 2015. The indications show that there is room for improved efficiency and productivity at the district courts. This audit is a contribution to that work.
The purpose of the audit is to establish whether the district courts use their available resources efficiently to be able to fulfil their remit. The audit is also to determine whether there is room for improvement. To answer this, the Swedish National Audit Office posed the following audit questions:
- Are there any differences in efficiency between district courts?
- What are the reasons for any differences in efficiency?
- How has productivity developed over time?
