There are over 1,700 pending magisterial inquiries as of the end of April 2025, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard said in response to a parliamentary question posed by Nationalist Party MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici.

Mifsud Bonnici asked Attard to state how many magisterial inquiries are currently pending, as well as to state how long ago the oldest one goes back.

Earlier in the year, parliament passed a controversial magisterial inquiry reform which received much criticism for removing the right for citizens to directly petition a magistrate to open an inquiry. With the reform, citizens instead have to file a police report before requesting an inquiry, and the matter can only be brought before a judge if the police fail to act within six months of the report being filed.

Another aspect of the reform was also that where magistrates once held the authority to decide whether or not to initiate an inquiry, the Attorney General was given oversight of this process through the reform, including the ability to extend inquiry timelines beyond the two-year limit.

In his reply to Mifsud Bonnici, Minister Attard said that the number of pending magisterial inquiries in the Courts of Malta as of the end of April was 1,716, with the Courts of Gozo having 44 cases. He added that the oldest case dates back to the year 1977.

Attard also provided a table detailing how long ago all the pending inquiries were opened, with the table showing that 630 cases are less than two years old, 533 are older than two years, 282 are older than three years, 103 are older than four years, 172 are older than five years, 33 are older than ten years, and 7 are older than twenty years.