There are currently 2,163 pending inquiries in Maltese and Gozitan courts, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici has revealed.

In reply to a Parliamentary Question by by MP Mario Galea, Bonnici provided figures which showed that there were 1,769 pending inquiries in Malta from 1987-2018; and 394 pending inquiries in the Gozo courts, from 1993-2018.

With regards to Malta, there are 629 pending inquiries from 2017, almost double the amount from 2016 (325), which itself is also almost double to the figure for 2015, 125.

From a Gozitan perspective,  there are 65 pending inquiries from 2017, 32 pending inquiries from 2016, and 9 from 2015.

It appears that from 2011 to 2015, the number of inquiries that were closed exceeded the amount that were opened; however, this has shifted for 2016 (916 opened, 848 closed) and 2017 (928 opened, 846 closed).

 The data also shows that there are two inquiries from 1987 that are still pending. In total there are 176 inquiries that have been pending for over 20 years.