Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for tribunal hearings.

Tribunals within the Ministry of Justice are administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and incorporate a wide range of administrative and civil & commercial jurisdictions. The largest jurisdictions are responsible for appeals in Employment, Immigration & Asylum and Social Security & Child Support matters.

HMCTS aims to hear tribunal cases as quickly as possible and we are introducing online digital services in our larger tribunals to enable faster processing of cases and improve the customer experience. HMCTS is also recruiting additional Judges where required together with Legal Officers who will actively manage cases; and creating virtual regions in the Employment and Immigration & Asylum tribunals to hear remote cases from any region and provide additional capacity.

If an expedited hearing is requested, a Judge or Legal Officer will make a decision on that issue, taking all the circumstances into account.

Tribunal statistics are published by MoJ on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics#tribunal-statistics-quarterly.