Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on reducing court backlogs for health and safety cases.

The number of outstanding cases for health and safety offences in the Crown Court has reduced. From a peak in the pandemic in 2021 of 144, the latest data shows the number of health and safety cases outstanding in the Crown Court is at 99, the lowest level since 2018. This data is a further breakdown of published data that can be found in the criminal court statistics quarterly publication, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2023.

We want to make sure every victim has the swift access to justice they deserve, and we are working hard to reduce the number of outstanding cases in the Crown Court. This includes removing the cap on the number of days courts can sit for the third year, recruiting more judges and extending the use of Nightingale Courts.

Thanks to this action, the Crown Court sat for more than 100,000 days last year - the highest level since 2017-18, and in both June and July around 15% more cases were completed compared to the previous two months.