Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of court staff availability for (a) existing courts, (b) courts operating extended hours including Saturday working, and (c) Nightingale courts.

In the last 12 months we have recruited 1,600 additional members of staff to ensure that we have the resources required to respond to the challenges of the pandemic.

We currently have the levels of resource necessary to support our existing court and tribunal operations, including Nightingale sites and Saturday courts in the Magistrates Courts, and we continue to recruit to ensure that staffing levels do not become a constraint on our recovery efforts.