Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support the legal services sector.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

One of the Industrial Strategy’s eight growth-driving sectors is Professional and Business Services, of which the Legal Sector will play a key role. Professional and Business Services has been selected because it has been successful, has driven growth, and is an area where the UK has a real competitive advantage.

Skills will play a crucial role in the Industrial Strategy, driving growth through increased productivity, as well as creating well paid jobs which increases opportunities for everyone. We will work closely with business, devolved governments, local leaders, trade unions and others to ensure the skills system is responsive and flexible, and that people have the opportunity to get on and fulfil their potential. This includes establishing Skills England and successfully designing the new Skills and Growth Levy.

We’ll publish our specific plans when we launch our new Industrial Strategy.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support legal services and skills.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

One of the Industrial Strategy’s eight growth-driving sectors is Professional and Business Services, of which the Legal Sector will play a key role. Professional and Business Services has been selected because it has been successful, has driven growth, and is an area where the UK has a real competitive advantage.

Skills will play a crucial role in the Industrial Strategy, driving growth through increased productivity, as well as creating well paid jobs which increases opportunities for everyone. We will work closely with business, devolved governments, local leaders, trade unions and others to ensure the skills system is responsive and flexible, and that people have the opportunity to get on and fulfil their potential. This includes establishing Skills England and successfully designing the new Skills and Growth Levy.

We’ll publish our specific plans when we launch our new Industrial Strategy.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure school uniform policies continue to promote school (a) identity, (b) pride and (c) inclusion, in the context of the proposed cap on branded items.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

Uniform, including a small number of branded uniform items, can play a key role in promoting the ethos of a school, providing a sense of belonging and identity, setting an appropriate tone for education, and reducing visible inequalities. However, too many schools require high numbers of costly branded uniform items and it is right that legislation limits the number of branded items schools can require. School uniform should be affordable and no child should be stigmatised due to financial constraints.

In setting an appropriate numerical limit of branded items, the department has looked at the available evidence to ensure we are striking the right balance between reducing costs for parents and recognising the benefits that some branded items may bring to school life.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost of a (a) court and (b) tribunal hearing transcript is.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The cost of a court or tribunal transcript varies, depending on the length of the hearing, whether the transcript is new or a copy, and the speed of delivery requested.

HMCTS contracts with external suppliers to provide court transcripts who hold data on orders that they receive. While HMCTS does not retain data centrally on the costs of court or tribunal transcripts, supplier Management Information data for the period January to December 2024 was extracted as follows:

• Total number of court and tribunal transcripts produced: 45,178

• The average cost of a transcript order between January and December 2024 based on the transcripts produced: £117.00 (excl. VAT)

Court and tribunal hearings differ significantly in length (from hearings that last less than a day to trials that can last several weeks or months) and transcript costs are in proportion to the volume of audio that must be transcribed and checked on a case-by-case basis. While costs of shorter hearings may be lower, full hearings or trials can cost significantly more. Therefore, the average cost calculated above using supplier data is not reflective of the full range of court and tribunal hearings and is not a general average cost of transcripts.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has plans to increase the use of artificial intelligence in the HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.

AI has the potential to enable service improvements across HMCTS, and we are exploring how it can be applied responsibly to our operations and services, including to support document processing, transcription, summarisation and translation. The use of AI in the courts and tribunals will be focused on accelerating and assisting people’s work, not automating decisions.

All use of artificial intelligence in the Ministry of Justice is aligned with the AI Playbook for the UK Government and the Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard. The Lady Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals issued AI Guidance for the judiciary in December 2023.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of accessing court transcripts for each of the last five years.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The cost incurred by HM Courts and Tribunals Service for transcription services in the five most recent financial years (April – March) is as below:

These figures do not include transcription spend incurred by Legal Aid Agency which are covered by central funds as these are not included in the accounts for HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Q3 of the oral evidence given by the Lady Chief Justice of England to the Justice Select Committee on 26 November 2024, HC 421, what estimate she has made of the total cost of sitting the extra 6,500 court sitting days to reach the maximum 113,000 days available.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

113,000 sitting days are a theoretical maximum of judicial sitting days in the Crown Court. It is not clear whether other parts of the system – for example the availability of counsel - could sustain that level of sitting, and therefore it is not correct to say that number of sitting days was 'available' for FY24/25.

In June the previous Lord Chancellor reached agreement with the Lady Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals to sit 106,000 days in the Crown Court in FY24/25 within a total budget of £275 million. In September, the current Lord Chancellor increased the allocation of sitting days for the Crown Court by 500 additional days and then again in December by 2,000, meaning that the total allocation for FY 24/25 is now 108,500, the highest number in nearly a decade.