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1700972

	registered interest
	date	15/04/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the unused court capacity was in each year since 2015.
	tabling member constituency	Mitcham and Morden
	tabling member printed	Dame Siobhain McDonagh
	uin	21520
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>HMCTS had the following number of sessions recorded as either available or unavailable since 2015:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Period</p></td><td><p>Available verified sessions</p></td><td><p>Unavailable verified sessions</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 15-16</p></td><td><p>1,552,490</p></td><td><p>42,692</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 16-17</p></td><td><p>1,512,424</p></td><td><p>36,811</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 17-18</p></td><td><p>1,387,270</p></td><td><p>37,598</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 18-19</p></td><td><p>1,347,648</p></td><td><p>36,507</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 19-20</p></td><td><p>1,302,006</p></td><td><p>38,408</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 20-21</p></td><td><p>1,062,856</p></td><td><p>130,071</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 21-22</p></td><td><p>1,277,033</p></td><td><p>86,511</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 22-23</p></td><td><p>1,277,981</p></td><td><p>42,665</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 23-24</p></td><td><p>1,281,838</p></td><td><p>48,201</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>A ‘session’ represents the time that court/hearing room space is available, with up to two sessions available each day. Available and unavailable sessions are recorded for all jurisdictions.</p><p>HMCTS record a session being unavailable for a number of reasons, including important alternative uses. For example:</p><ul><li>box work</li><li>case-related unavailability</li><li>commercial use (e.g., filming)</li><li>community engagement</li><li>where the room is connected to chambers which are in use</li><li>court closures due to severe weather or security incidents, holidays (not public holiday) or formerly due to COVID</li><li>external meetings (e.g., Court User Group)</li><li>use for external organisations (e.g., Coroner)</li><li>Judges office, meeting space, mentoring and/or reading time</li><li>maintenance work</li><li>mediation (parties present)</li><li>overspill (in support of a hearing taking place elsewhere)</li><li>room closed due to COVID outbreak</li><li>staff meetings and/or training</li><li>video link being used for other matter</li></ul><p>HMCTS’ Courtroom Planner performance database was introduced in April 2015 to collect information on the availability of courtrooms. The data was suspended in April 2020 due to COVID disruption and resumed in September 2020. The data between April and August 2020 is therefore incomplete.</p><p> </p><p>The amount of time we use our available estate for hearings is also connected to the funded number of sitting days in any one year, and the availability of key participants such as judiciary and legal professionals.</p><p> </p><p>To maintain session levels, we are investing £220m in the two years to March 2025 for essential maintenance and repair work across the estate to ensure we are keeping as many courtrooms open as possible to hear more cases. This two-year capital maintenance allocation enables us to plan major estate projects in advance and with certainty. Maintenance funding is prioritised to sites that need it most, and this investment is a step forward in improving the quality of the court estate. We have a planned pipeline of future works to improve the resilience and quality of the court estate, and this is kept under regular review.</p><p> </p><p>We have also introduced additional measures to speed up justice for victims and improve the justice system, including:</p><p>o Extending 20 Nightingale courtrooms beyond March 2024 to provide additional capacity in the court estate.</p><p>o Investing in judicial recruitment since 2017 which has resulted in the annual recruitment of approximately 1000 judges and tribunal members across all jurisdictions. In particular, this has led to an overall increase in the number of judges in the Crown Court.</p><p> </p><p>Please note all data provided is internal and subject to data quality issues inherent in any large-scale manual system.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 23/04/2024 15:13:07 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	193 label Biography information for Dame Siobhain McDonagh

1697732

	registered interest
	date	20/03/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the backlog in the courts.
	tabling member constituency	Broadland
	tabling member printed	Jerome Mayhew
	uin	902212
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2024 answer text <p>We remain committed to tackling the outstanding caseloads across our courts and tribunals and have introduced a range of measures to achieve this aim.</p><p> </p><p>Over 90% of all criminal cases are heard at the magistrates’ court, where we heard 100,000 cases a month on average across 2023. While the outstanding caseload in the magistrates’ courts has slightly increased in recent months due to an increase in the number of cases coming to court, the caseload remains well below its pandemic peak and stood at 353,900 at the end of September 2023, and cases continue to be progressed quickly. To aid our efforts in the magistrates’ courts, we invested £1 million in a programme of work to support the recruitment of more magistrates. We aim to recruit 2,000 new magistrates this year, and similar numbers for each of the next couple of years.</p><p> </p><p>At the Crown Court, we remain committed to reducing the outstanding caseload. Last financial year we sat over 100,000 days and this financial year, we plan to deliver around 107,000 sitting days and recruit more than 1,000 judges across all jurisdictions. Judges have worked tirelessly to complete more cases, with disposals up by 9% during Q3 in 2023 compared to Q4 in 2022 (25,700 compared to 23,700).</p><p>We are also investing in our criminal courts. In August 2023, we announced we are investing £220 million for essential modernisation and repair work of our court buildings across the next two years, up to March 2025. We have also continued the use of 20 Nightingale courtrooms into the 2024/25 financial year, to allow courts to work at full capacity.</p><p> </p><p>In the Family Court, we are working with the Department for Education and other partners on the Family Justice Board to tackle the longest running cases and increase the proportion of public law cases that conclude within the 26-week timeline. The Department for Education are also investing an extra £10m to develop new initiatives to address the longest delays in public law proceedings.</p><p>We announced in the Spring Budget an additional £55m to improve productivity, support earlier resolution of family disputes and reduce the number of cases coming to court. This includes creating a digital advice tool for separating couples, piloting early legal advice and supporting the expansion of the private law Pathfinder model. We are also investing up to £23.6m in the family mediation voucher scheme, which we intend will allow for its continuation up to March 2025. As of March 2024, over 26,000 families have successfully used the scheme to attempt to resolve their private law disputes outside of court.</p><p> </p><p>With regards to civil cases, we are taking action to ensure those that do need to go to trial are dealt with quickly. We have launched the biggest ever judicial recruitment drive for District Judges, are digitising court processes and holding more remote hearings, and are increasing the use of mediation. The requirement for small claims in the county court to attend a mediation session with the Small Claims Mediation Service will start this spring and is expected to help parties resolve their dispute swiftly and consensually without the need for a judicial hearing.</p><p>With regards to tribunals, we continue to work with the Department for Business and Trade on further measures to address caseloads in the Employment Tribunal, where the deployment of legal officers, recruitment of additional judges and a new electronic case management system have helped the Tribunal to manage its caseload which remains below its pandemic peak.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 26/03/2024 17:15:12 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	4739 label Biography information for Jerome Mayhew

1690452

	registered interest
	date	20/02/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to expand the use of Nightingale courts.
	tabling member constituency	Hendon
	tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
	uin	14843
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/02/2024 answer text <p>Nightingale courts have provided necessary additional court capacity since the pandemic, and we announced on 16 February that 20 of these courtrooms will remain open in 2024. Our assessment is that this is the appropriate level of provision required to deliver swifter justice.</p><p>The locations chosen to remain open in England and Wales have been identified where they will help reduce the number of local outstanding cases, support maintenance projects by hearing cases when nearby locations are temporarily closed or to make full use of judicial capacity in court areas where there are more judges available.</p><p>Our primary focus is to maximise the use of our existing estate and our investment of £220 million in the two years to March 2025 to maintain and modernise our buildings will improve resilience and availability. We will continue to monitor our operational requirements, and should further additional capacity be required, we will consider a range of options including Nightingale courts.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 28/02/2024 16:38:32 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1659902

	registered interest
	date	06/09/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help prevent the cancellation of court hearings at short notice.
	tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
	tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
	uin	906349
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2023 answer text <p>The trend in Crown Court vacated (i.e. cancelled) trials is improving. Following the Crown Court Improvement Group update in January, we have seen 27% fewer vacated trials compared to the same period before the Bar Strike.</p><p>While short notice postponements are undesirable, they are not always avoidable.</p><p>Judges are responsible for listing. Most cases that are vacated are done so in excess of 10 days from hearing date, as we always aim to keep short notice postponements to a minimum.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 12/09/2023 15:46:05 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1626738

	registered interest
	date	10/05/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase the capacity of the courts.
	tabling member constituency	Eastleigh
	tabling member printed	Paul Holmes
	uin	184521
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/05/2023 answer text <p>The outstanding Crown Court caseload has been falling since October. We have invested a significant amount of funding for the Criminal Justice System to help improve waiting times for victims of crime and reduce the outstanding Crown Court caseload.</p><p> </p><p>We are recruiting up to 1,000 judges across all jurisdictions in 2023/24, last year removed the limit on sitting days in the Crown Court for the second financial year in a row, and recently announced the continued use of 24 Nightingale courtrooms into the 2023/24 financial year.</p><p> </p><p>We have also significantly increased funding to improve waiting times in the civil and family courts and tribunals. This includes increasing funding to Cafcass by £8.4 million last financial year to deal with more open active cases.</p><p> </p><p>To help maximise our available judicial capacity, we also introduced a virtual region pilot scheme in July to support civil and family courts in London and the South East. This allows deputy district judges from outside these regions to sit virtually in London and the South East so we can hear as many cases as possible.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 18/05/2023 14:47:02 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	4803 label Biography information for Paul Holmes

1612991

	registered interest
	date	20/04/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the average unused court capacity in each year since 2010 for which figures are available.
	tabling member constituency	Croydon North
	tabling member printed	Steve Reed
	uin	181979
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/04/2023 answer text <p>Since 2015, HMCTS had the following number of sessions recorded as either available or unavailable to schedule and hold face to face hearings:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Period</p></td><td><p>Available verified sessions</p></td><td><p>Unavailable verified sessions</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 15-16</p></td><td><p>1,552,490</p></td><td><p>42,692</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 16-17</p></td><td><p>1,512,424</p></td><td><p>36,811</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 17-18</p></td><td><p>1,387,270</p></td><td><p>37,598</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 18-19</p></td><td><p>1,347,648</p></td><td><p>36,507</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 19-20</p></td><td><p>1,302,006</p></td><td><p>38,408</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 20-21</p></td><td><p>1,062,856</p></td><td><p>130,071</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 21-22</p></td><td><p>1,277,033</p></td><td><p>86,511</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>HMCTS record a session being unavailable for a number of reasons, including important alternative uses. This includes:</p><ul><li>box work</li><li>case-related unavailability</li><li>commercial use (e.g., filming)</li><li>community engagement</li><li>where the room is connected to chambers which are in use</li><li>court closures due to severe weather or security incidents, holidays (not public holiday) or formerly due to COVID-19</li><li>external meetings (e.g., Court User Group)</li><li>use for external organisations (e.g., Coroner)</li><li>Judges office, meeting space, mentoring and/or reading time</li><li>maintenance work</li><li>mediation (parties present)</li><li>overspill</li><li>room closed due to COVID outbreak</li><li>Single Justice Procedure</li><li>staff meetings and/or training</li><li>telephone conference (obsolete)</li><li>video link being used for hearing/trial (obsolete)</li><li>video link being used for other matter</li><li>writing judgment.</li></ul><p> </p><p>Data collection in OPT Courtroom Planner was introduced in April 2015. The data was suspended in April 2020 due to COVID-19 disruption and resumed in September 2020. The data between April and August 2020 is therefore incomplete.</p><p> </p><p>Please note all data provided is internal and subject to data quality issues inherent in any large-scale manual system.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 27/04/2023 15:30:45 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1583405

	registered interest
	date	02/02/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made any recent assessment of whether people have unhindered access to the courts of criminal or civil jurisdiction for the determination of disputes as to their legal rights and liabilities.
	tabling member constituency	Slough
	tabling member printed	Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi
	uin	138445
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/02/2023 answer text <p>Accessible courts and tribunals are an essential part of the justice system. There will always be outstanding cases in the courts as the figures include cases that are being prepared to be heard in the courts.</p><p> </p><p>We have removed the limit on sitting days, extended 30 Nightingale courtrooms, and we are extending our plans for judicial recruitment to increase sitting capacity and improve waiting times for victims. To provide additional capacity in the Crown Court, magistrates’ sentencing powers have been extended from 6 to 12 months for a single Triable Either Way offence allowing more cases to be heard in the magistrates' court.</p><p> </p><p>We are also taking steps to ensure people receive appropriate support when attending a court or tribunal. In March we published a detailed consultation on legal aid means-testing arrangements. This consultation has now closed, and we are considering responses. We plan to publish a response in early 2023 to set out our final proposals, which will significantly increase income thresholds for all types of legal aid.</p><p>The Government keeps the scope of civil and family legal aid under constant review. We recently announced expansions in housing and family legal aid, investing £23m to support vulnerable people needing legal assistance.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 09/02/2023 14:17:42 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	4638 label Biography information for Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

1583412

	registered interest
	date	02/02/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department takes to ensure that people on low incomes are not denied access to the courts for financial reasons.
	tabling member constituency	Slough
	tabling member printed	Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi
	uin	138449
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/02/2023 answer text <p>The Ministry of Justice has a fee remission scheme in place called Help with Fees for court or tribunal users who are on low incomes and cannot afford a court fee. This scheme considers several factors including the applicant’s income, savings, the size of the fee and whether they are receiving any benefits. Successful applicants may receive a partial or total remission. Additionally, if the applicant doesn’t qualify for Help with Fees they may ask court staff to exercise the Lord Chancellor's exceptional power to remit fees. This ensures no one is denied access to justice because they can’t afford a court or tribunal fee.</p><p> </p><p>Furthermore, we have consulted on changes to the Legal Aid Means Test. The consultation proposed a broad suite of changes to the civil and criminal legal aid means test, with the aim of ensuring access to justice. These included uprating the income and capital thresholds for legal aid eligibility. In particula, we have proposed increasing the lower disposable income threshold for civil legal aid by 97%from £315 to £622 per month – this will particularly help legal aid applicants with the lowest incomes, who are unable to contribute towards their legal aid. Our proposals will significantly increase income thresholds for all types of legal aid. This will ensure that legal aid is accessible to all who need it.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 09/02/2023 14:18:27 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	4638 label Biography information for Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

1568944

	registered interest
	date	20/01/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2023 to Question 119232 on Crown Court and Magistrates Courts: Repairs and Maintenance, what the average number of cases heard per day was in (a) magistrates and (b) crown courts in the latest period for which data is available.
	tabling member constituency	Croydon North
	tabling member printed	Steve Reed
	uin	128643
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2023 answer text <p>The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 26/01/2023 09:21:18 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1547012

	registered interest
	date	30/11/2022
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Government's past announcement of removing the limit to court sitting days, how many days courts are currently being instructed to sit.
	tabling member constituency	Croydon North
	tabling member printed	Steve Reed
	uin	99863
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/12/2022 answer text <p>In April this year, we removed the limit on sitting days in the Crown Court for 2022/23.</p><p>While the listing of cases into allocated sitting days is a matter for the independent judiciary, Resident Judges and listing officers are clear that they are free to list to sit as many days as capacity, particularly judicial capacity, will allow.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 06/12/2022 12:38:22 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed