Civil Team Blog – ‘Civil Matters’ #2 – When will I Know? How long does it take for an Application for PTA to be determined by the Supreme Court?

Week 2 of KBG Chambers’ Civil Teams Blog – ‘Civil Matters’

‘When will I know? How long does it take for an Application for PTA to be determined by the Supreme Court?’

Rawdon Crozier is currently waiting to hear whether he has secured permission to appeal (“PTA”) to the Supreme Court in a case in which he was instructed at the PTA stage. The PTA application was lodged on 4 September 2026, but how long does it typically take for the grant or refusal of permission to be decided?

There are two different metrics: one is the time it takes from the lodging of the PTA application, another is the time from the decision that is being appealed, which, of course, first involves an application for PTA to the lower court and so inevitably will be longer. According to the answer to a Freedom of Information request in 2025 — https://supremecourt.uk/corporate-information/foi/2025 — “Before the … [electronic Case Management Portal] … was launched on 4 December 2024, the average time from submission to the issuance of a listing notice was 171 days. Following the launch of the new portal, the average time is now 105 days” or just under three and a half months. Getting a listing notice is not strictly the same thing because a listing will only be given if permission has been granted. There is nothing to indicate refusals have a significantly different disposal time, however. So far as the time from the date of the decision under appeal to the grant or refusal of appeal, taking PTA decisions made in June and July of this year, a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests the average time is 141 days or about 4 months and 19 days. The Court of Appeal’s decision in the case in which Rawdon is instructed was handed down on 1st July 2026, so roll on November or December!