Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many external consultants have been employed to help implement temporary courts during the covid-19 outbreak.
No external consultants have been employed and no contracts have been awarded for the specific purpose of implementing temporary Nightingale courts.
The project to implement temporary Nightingale courts has been administered by an in-house team of HMCTS project and programme staff. While the project is in-house, HMCTS has engaged the services of Cushman and Wakefield - Commercial Real Estate Services to a value of approximately £43k to provide specialist support in negotiating licences for hire venues.
These additional hearing venues are being rapidly set up by HMCTS to alleviate the pressure on courts and tribunals resulting from the pandemic
HMCTS has published an update on their response to covid-19 in the criminal courts in England and Wales (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus). This provides a comprehensive update on our recovery plans and includes details about Nightingale courts.