Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the letter to the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South and the hon. Member for Sunderland Central from the former Minister of State for Courts and Justice of 11 December 2017, what estimate he has made of the cost of the proposals to integrate Sunderland County Court into the Sunderland Magistrates’ Court building.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service has estimated that the cost of integrating Sunderland County Court into the Sunderland Magistrates’ Court building will be approximately £284,000.

Work to integrate the County Court into the Magistrates’ Court is expected to be completed by May 2018.