Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to launch the review into the Disability Confident Scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
My officials and I have been working with a wide range of stakeholders—including disabled people, the Devolved Governments, disability organisations, employers, and sector experts—throughout the summer to explore potential reforms to the Disability Confident Scheme.
This includes considering how to support Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) better, strengthen validation processes, enhance promotion of the scheme, and improve transparency and accountability. These reforms aim to make the scheme more robust while building better support for both employers and disabled people in and out of work.
The Government is working towards announcing next steps for improving the scheme later this autumn
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with HM Courts and Tribunals Service on addressing the backlog of criminal cases in Wiltshire.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The outstanding caseload in the criminal courts remains one of the biggest challenges facing the Criminal Justice System. Ministers meet regularly with the judiciary and HMCTS to discuss shared priorities, including the criminal courts caseload.
For this financial year (25/26), this Government is funding a record allocation of Crown Court sitting days to deliver swifter justice for victims – 110,000 sitting days this year, 4,000 higher than the last Government funded. We also funded 108,500 sitting days in the Crown Court in the last financial year - the highest level in almost 10 years (since FY15/16). We continue to build capacity in magistrates’ courts, with 14,636 magistrates in post as of April 2025 across England and Wales. This year alone, we are uplifting our programme to bring in 2,000 new and diverse magistrates over the next 12 months and will continue to recruit at high levels in future years – ensuring our benches reflect the communities they serve. We also continue to recruit high levels of legal advisers, securing resilience for years to come.
However, the scale of the challenge is beyond what increasing sitting days can achieve.
This is why the Government asked Sir Brian Leveson to chair an Independent Review of Criminal Courts, to propose once-in-a-generation reform that will improve timeliness in the courts and deliver swifter justice for victims. The first part of the Review now been published. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals before setting out the Government’s full response in the autumn.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of staff shortages in His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service on delays to criminal trials in Wiltshire.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Staffing allocations are in line with current workload across the courts in Wiltshire, although recruitment can be an issue, particularly in Swindon where the competition in the job market is high. That said, administrative staff at both the Crown Court and magistrates’ courts in Wiltshire are at or near compliment. A shortfall in legal advisers in the magistrates’ courts in Wiltshire has had an impact on trial timeliness. To mitigate the impact of reduced sittings, His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service has implemented a detailed plan to address the position, and a rolling programme to recruit trainee legal advisers to support magistrates’ court capacity is part of this. There is currently legal adviser capacity to sit 54 crime courts per week and this is expected to rise in line with the planning, stabilising at 65 courts per week in 12-months time. In addition, the measures implemented to address the situation will see a dedicated trial blitz in late 2025 and which is supported by inter-agency collaboration.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of court capacity in Wiltshire to meet expected caseloads in the next five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This Government inherited record and rising courts backlog. In the criminal courts jurisdiction, we have funded a record-high allocation of 110,000 Crown Court sitting days across England and Wales this financial year to deliver swifter justice for victims, 4,000 more than in 24/25 under the previous Government. However, current national system performance and projected demand in coming years suggest the scale of the challenge is beyond what increasing sitting days can achieve. This is why the Government asked Sir Brian Leveson to chair an Independent Review of Criminal Courts, to propose once-in-a-generation reform that will improve timeliness in the courts and deliver swifter justice for victims. The first part of the Review now been published. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals before setting out the Government’s full response in the autumn.
In Wiltshire, current Crown Court performance compares favourably with other centres. Between June 2024 and June 2025, new case receipts declined by 3%; and the outstanding caseload reduced by 18%, indicating that we do have the capacity to meet current demand in the Crown court.
In the magistrates’ courts, our open caseloads rose steadily last year, demonstrating that the challenge we face is across the criminal courts structure, not solely in the Crown Court. We continue to recruit high levels of magistrates and legal advisers to secure resilience in the magistrates’ court for years to come.