Courts: Coronavirus

(asked on 5th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of courts are currently working to full capacity.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 10th March 2021

HMCTS has implemented measures which mean that all of our courts and tribunals buildings have lower footfall than before the pandemic and are therefore operating at less than full capacity.

Our Organisational Risk Assessment sets out the suite of measures put in place to ensure our buildings remain safe for those who use them, and these measures have been developed with the endorsement of public health agencies. Key to these measures is social distancing which has been embedded across the HMCTS estate since the onset of COVID-19.

Adhering to social distancing has, necessarily, reduced the capacity in our court and tribunal buildings to manage and hear cases, because it inevitably restricts the number of people who can be safely accommodated across the various parts of each site. HMCTS has taken a number steps to minimise the impact of this on our ability to service access to justice needs, including the introduction of additional ‘Nightingale’ court venues to provide increased accommodation. They are used on a temporary basis to ensure as many hearings as possible can continue to take place during the COVID-19 outbreak.

As at 4th March, courtroom availability, split by HMCTS Region, is as follows

Region

Not Open

Open

Open (%)

Grand Total

London

196

509

72%

705

Midlands

103

339

76%

442

North East

98

313

76%

411

North West

64

334

83%

398

Scotland

33

35

51%

68

South East

37

404

91%

441

South West

18

238

92%

256

Wales

9

141

94%

150

Grand Total

558

2313

80%

2871

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