Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, regarding the establishment of a Business and Property Division of the High Court, what consideration he has given to supporting the retention of the name Chancery Division.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
A Written Ministerial Statement was submitted to Parliament on 2 June, announcing the creation of a Business and Property Division of the High Court. This initiative is being led by the judiciary. The name provides greater clarity to court users and strengthens the international profile of this globally significant hub for litigation.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many courtrooms in crown courts were not sitting on each day in the past month.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Crown Court operates from 84 buildings across England and Wales, with a core estate of over 500 courtrooms. The table below outlines the number of courtrooms in the Crown Court that were not sitting each day in April 2026. To contextualise these figures, in April 2026 the Crown Court sat a total of 9,019 days. This compares to 8,751 in April 2025, 9,571 in April 2024, 7,337 in April 2023, 7,041 in April 2022 and 7,487 in April 2021.
It would be extremely unusual to have 100% courtroom utilisation in any jurisdiction, not least because the system needs to flex at short notice to meet unexpected capacity loss, cope with surges in demand, or accommodate overrunning trials and to allow for additional public and press access.
There is also a difference between system capacity and physical capacity. Running courtrooms requires not just available rooms but also, for example (but not limited to), judicial time, court staff, and sufficient numbers of barristers and solicitors.
We have invested a record £2.78 billion in our courts and tribunals service in 2026/27, including uncapped sitting days in the Crown Court for 2026/27 so that it can run at maximum system capacity. We have also announced additional investment in the workforce and legal professionals, including an additional £92 million per year for criminal legal aid solicitor fees, up to £34 million per year extra for criminal legal aid advocates, and match-funded criminal law pupillages to open a career at the Criminal Bar to more young people from across society.
This financial investment is just one element of our work to tackle the crisis in our criminal courts as it is only by pulling all levers at our disposal – financial investment, modernisation and pragmatic structural reform – that we can put the criminal courts onto a genuinely sustainable footing.
Dates | Available(2) courtrooms that did not sit | |
01/04/2026 | 86 | |
02/04/2026 | Easter holiday period | 103 |
07/04/2026 | 115 | |
08/04/2026 | 103 | |
09/04/2026 | 106 | |
10/04/2026 | 123 | |
13/04/2026 | 47 | |
14/04/2026 | 47 | |
15/04/2026 | 51 | |
16/04/2026 | 56 | |
17/04/2026 | 63 | |
20/04/2026 | 46 | |
21/04/2026 | 41 | |
22/04/2026 | 44 | |
23/04/2026 | 54 | |
24/04/2026 | 56 | |
27/04/2026 | 46 | |
28/04/2026 | 44 | |
29/04/2026 | 48 | |
30/04/2026 | 49 | |
Source System - HMCTS Management Information (Courtroom Planner)
1 - Data extracted from Courtroom Planner on 4 June 2026, for courtrooms allocated to the Crown Court.
2 - Data is based on individual courtrooms in the Crown Court estate. These are rooms whose primary use has been assigned to the Crown Court, not necessarily in a Crown Court venue and excludes rooms that were unavailable to sit for another reason.
3 - Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available.
4 - Data are management information and are not subject to the same level of checks as official statistics.
5 - Data are taken from a live management information system and can change over time and for that reason might differ slightly from any previously published information.
6 - Data has not been cross referenced with case files.
7 - Crown courts do not normally sit on bank holidays or weekends so these have been removed.
8 – Crown court sittings can be intentionally reduced over Christmas and Easter holiday periods, as reflected in the table.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report by the Children's Commissioner entitled 'The educational journeys of children in secure settings', if she will name the six settings which had been the most recent registered setting for 20% of children in the sample.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
'The educational journeys of children in secure settings’ is an independent report written by the Children’s Commissioner. The Children's Commissioner is an independent person appointed under the provisions of the Children's Act 2004. The department does not hold the underlying data and is therefore unable to confirm the specific settings referenced.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether they plan to make further updates to the Equal Treatment Bench Book regarding the long-term impact of rape trauma and how this can affect engagement with the criminal justice process.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
To preserve judicial independence, statutory responsibility for judicial training is held by the Lady Chief Justice, Senior President of Tribunals and Chief Coroner. These responsibilities are fulfilled by the Judicial College, which is also responsible for the publication of the Equal Treatment Bench Book.
The Equal Treatment Bench Book is intended to increase judicial office holders’ awareness and understanding of people’s different circumstances and requirements. It includes guidance on ensuring safe and effective participation in the judicial process in cases of sexual offences, including the impact of rape trauma. It is regularly updated to reflect developments in law, practice and procedure, with the last update published in February 2026.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost was of producing the Judicial Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2026-2030.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Judicial Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2026-2030 was produced by the Judiciary, as part of the Lady Chief Justice’s statutory responsibility to encourage judicial diversity.
In keeping with the principle of judicial independence, the Ministry of Justice was not involved in producing the strategy and no costs were incurred by the Department.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on establishing specialist courts for rape cases at every Crown Court location in England and Wales.
Answered by Catherine Atkinson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We remain fully committed to our manifesto pledge to introduce specialist rape courts. As part of this, we are carefully considering how best to deliver specialist court models, recognising that any approach must work alongside wider efforts to reduce Crown Court caseload and ensure sufficient judicial and legal capacity. We continue to work closely with the independent judiciary and will set out further detail in due course.
Alongside this, we are taking forward a range of measures to improve the experience of victims of rape at court. This includes introducing independent legal advisors for adult rape victims, rolling out trauma-informed training to all court staff, and bringing forward reforms through the Courts and Tribunals Bill to strengthen protections for victims in the courtroom.
More broadly, these reforms form part of our wider mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, ensuring that victims are better supported and able to have confidence in the criminal justice system.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether any books or texts by Hassan al-Banna have been discovered or seized in prisons in England and Wales in the past two years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Material that promotes or supports acts of terrorism, extremism or radicalisation is banned from prisons, in accordance with the Prison Public Protection Policy Framework. The Joint Extremism Unit in HM Prison & Probation Service maintains a list of such material. Its contents are withheld from public disclosure, on grounds of national security. Measures are in place to prevent material of this sort from coming into prisoners’ possession. If any is discovered, it will be removed immediately. Prison governors also have discretion to restrict prisoners’ access to material that is not specifically banned under the policy.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether books entitled (a) The Way of the Jihad by Hassan al-Banna, (b) Milestones by Sayyid Qutb and (c) The Lawful and Prohibited in Islam by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi have been discovered and seized in prisons in the last two years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Material that promotes or supports acts of terrorism, extremism or radicalisation is banned from prisons, in accordance with the Prison Public Protection Policy Framework. The Joint Extremism Unit in HM Prison & Probation Service maintains a list of such material. Its contents are withheld from public disclosure, on grounds of national security. Measures are in place to prevent material of this sort from coming into prisoners’ possession. If any is discovered, it will be removed immediately. Prison governors also have discretion to restrict prisoners’ access to material that is not specifically banned under the policy.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the panel of experts supporting the report by David Ormerod into the function and purpose of criminal courts for child defendants will be (a) paid a salary and (b) compensated for expenses.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
David Ormerod was appointed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice as an Expert Advisor on the future of criminal courts for children via the Direct Ministerial Appointments process. As set out in the published Terms of Reference, the Expert Advisor will be supported by a panel of independent experts and a dedicated Secretariat. The estimated total cost of this work, including salary and expense arrangements of everyone involved cannot be confirmed until the composition of the panel and the Secretariat have been finalised. However, the remuneration arrangements for the Expert Advisor are confirmed and are available here. The evidence gathering phase of this work will involve consultation with a wide range of stakeholders. It will be for the Expert Advisor and the panel members to determine which specific individuals and organisations they intend to consult in due course.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department has paid to (a) influencers and (b) content creators to (i) promote and (ii) create social media content since July 2024; and which content creators and influencers were paid.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Commercial sensitivities exist around aspects of this spend which could prejudice commercial interests. All spend in these areas are subject to the standard value for money assessments.