Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to respond to the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts.

The Government is grateful to Sir Brian and his panel of expert advisers for their Independent Review of the Criminal Courts. Sir Brian’s Review makes 180 recommendations aiming to reform the Criminal Justice System and drive improvements to efficiency.

Part 1 of Sir Brian’s report sets out a blueprint for pragmatic structural reform in our criminal courts. The Courts and Tribunals Bill is the first step to putting that blueprint into law. This Bill will enable much-needed reform of the criminal courts.

Part 2 of Sir Brian’s report makes 135 recommendations to improve the efficiency of the criminal courts. The report is thorough and I welcome his ambition to see real improvements to the system.

We are carefully considering the remaining recommendations from parts 1 and 2 of Sir Brian’s review, many of those require cross criminal justice system coordination with other agencies and Departments. We will set out a full response in the summer.