Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the letter of 6 March 2018 from the Under-Secretary of State for Justice to the hon. Members for Houghton and Sunderland South and for Sunderland Central, what progress has been made on the future of the Sunderland court estate.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service has completed the assessment and information gathering activities which were outlined in the letter I wrote to the Honourable Member on 6 March 2018. As stated in the letter, the HMCTS Property Board is now considering options for the court estate in Sunderland. I will write to the Honourable Member shortly to provide further information regarding the outcome of the Property Board deliberations.