Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure timely and accurate access to magistrates court listings and registers for the public and media following the deletion of the Courtsdesk archive.

The starting point is there has been no deletion of the Courtsdesk “archive”.

Magistrates’ court listing and registers data continues to be available online, by email, in courts, and over the phone.

Work is underway to improve the way in which Magistrates and Crown court lists are available. First, we have launched a market engagement exercise for new providers to reuse our data under a new licensing regime (which would be open to Courtsdesk to apply for); second, in the interim, we have contacted Courtsdesk, and I have met with its CEO, with a view to potentially reestablishing their service provided they can demonstrate they will comply with our data protection requirements; third, by the end of March we will be expanding the Court and Tribunal Hearings (CaTH) service, an online portal which allows journalists and the public to access and search court-related information. By the end of March, CaTH will include Magistrates’ and Crown Court lists alongside the Civil, Family and Tribunal hearing lists already published.

Court records have always been, and will remain, available through formal requests to the relevant court.