Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for judicial review involving coronavirus regulations await (a) initial decision by a judge and (b) an oral hearing; and how long on average each of those applications has been waiting to be determined.

There are 6 outstanding cases in the Administrative Court seeking to judicially review the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care which involve a challenge to the coronavirus regulations. These can be broken down as follows:

• 4 await a decision on their initial permission application.
• 1 application has been refused on paper and is listed for an oral renewal hearing
• 1 has been heard and judgment is reserved

Of the 4 applications awaiting an initial decision, 3 have been waiting for an average of 7 weeks. One of the applications has been ongoing for 50 weeks, having been held back pending a decision of the Court of Appeal on a related case.

The application in which permission was refused is listed for a renewal hearing in April, which will be 31 weeks since it was received.

The final case in which judgment was reserved, took 13 weeks from receipt to the date permission was granted and a total of 37 weeks from receipt to the final hearing.