Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to reduce backlogs in family courts in (a) Greater Manchester Combined Authority and (b) Rochdale Borough Council.

Delays in the court process can have a significant impact on children and families. We are committed to improving timeliness and reducing the outstanding caseload.

The Family Justice Board agreed system-wide national targets for reducing delay in 2024/25. These are focused on closing the longest running cases in private and public law, and increasing the proportion of public law cases concluded within the statutory 26-week timeframe.

As part of system-wide efforts, the Department for Education is investing £10 million to develop and implement local area initiatives to address the longest delays in public law cases. This includes a pre-case management hearing pilot which involves an information sharing meeting between the Local Authority Social Worker and the Cafcass Guardian. The pilot aims to reduce family court delay by ensuring that the case management hearing is as effective as possible at reducing the need for additional hearings. Rochdale and other local authorities within Greater Manchester have been actively participating in the pilot which is due to conclude at the end of March 2025. The pilot is being independently evaluated which will help inform future plans to reduce family court delay.

The Government has committed further funding for Pathfinder for private law in the next financial year, which is live in four areas. It will start in Mid and West Wales on 3 March and West Yorkshire on 3 June. Further expansion of the scheme will be confirmed in due course.

The Lord Chancellor agrees the programme of recruitment every year with the Lady Chief Justice, prioritising building judicial capacity where it will have the greatest impact on securing government objectives. This includes recruiting additional judges to hear Family cases.