Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of case backlogs in (a) criminal and (b) civil courts.

Criminal Courts

The Crown Court outstanding caseload remains one of the biggest challenges facing the Criminal Justice System. We have already shown we are committed to bearing down on the caseload and bringing waiting times down.

This Government has increased the number of Crown Court sitting days to 106,500, more than in six out of the last seven years. We are also in the process of extending magistrates’ court sentencing powers from 6 to 12 months, freeing up 2,000 days in the Crown Court to handle the most serious cases.

Judges have been prioritising rape cases that have been waiting for over two years to go to trial. Despite this, there are some cases in the outstanding caseload which are taking far too long to progress through the system. We want to make sure every victim has the swift access to justice they deserve. This is why we have committed to fast-tracking rape cases through the courts, to deliver swift and effective justice to some of the most vulnerable victims in the criminal justice system and will say more on this in due course.

We consistently invest in the recruitment of c.1,000 judges and tribunal members across all jurisdictions annually alongside continuing to use 18 Nightingale courtrooms across eight venues to hear more cases.

Civil Courts

The civil courts play a crucial role in supporting the economy and growth as well as ensuring citizens have access to justice.

Performance remains a challenge in the civil courts and the Government is committed to resolving cases quickly, as well as ensuring that claims are dealt with appropriately and proportionately according to their complexity and value.

The Ministry of Justice is working closely with the senior judiciary to improve performance across the jurisdiction by reducing demand, increasing capacity and introducing efficiencies. For example, we continue to explore the expansion of integrated mediation in certain disputes, to enable the swift and cost-effective resolution of disputes. The county courts use a ‘national and virtual region pool’ which enables judges to hear cases outside their regional circuit, to ensure that available judicial resource can be deployed to areas of significant demand elsewhere when needed.