Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the number of court appearances that have been delayed as a result of Operation Early Dawn; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of Operation Early Dawn on court administration.

Operation Early Dawn is a contingency designed to mitigate impacts across the criminal justice system. We monitor system impacts but we cannot estimate how many court appearances are delayed because of Operation Early Dawn. This data is not collected in our management information systems (because Operation Early Dawn is a contingency).

We can confirm that no court sessions were cancelled as a result of Operation Early Dawn.

The Ministry of Justice and its agencies are working to minimise any associated delays across the criminal justice system, which includes prioritising the most urgent cases, and to minimise the inevitable impact on court administration.