Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 16th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Cat Smith (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

What progress he has made on tackling the backlog of cases in HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

What steps he has taken to help tackle the backlog of criminal cases before the courts.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

What progress he has made on tackling the backlog of cases in HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Jones]

I am encouraged by the measures my hon. Friend is taking to catch up on the backlog. Will he update me specifically on how many Nightingale courts are now open and in use for Crown court work?

[Chris Philp]

There are currently, as we speak, 49 Nightingale courtrooms open and available for work. There are five more opening this week, one of which is Croydon, the borough that I have the honour of representing in south London, and by the end of this month we will get up to a total of 60. Many of those courtrooms can be used for Crown court work, but even where they cannot—for example, because they do not have custodial facilities—they are very often able to do work that would otherwise be done in a Crown court centre that is then freed up for work where, for example, custody suites are required. This is making a real contribution and we intend to go further.