Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to reduce delays in the (a) processing and (b) hearing of cases at the First-Tier Tribunal.

This Government inherited a broken justice system with record and rising court backlogs. We are determined to reverse these trends in this Parliament. HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) continues to invest in improving tribunal productivity by:

• Increasing capacity. The Lord Chancellor announced on 5 March 2025 a record investment of £2.5 billion across all court and tribunals, both civil and criminal, in 2025/26. This will allow HMCTS to increase the number of sitting days available to the tribunals to close to maximum capacity and continue a substantial judicial recruitment programme which is already underway. We have continued investment this year in the recruitment of up to 1,000 judges and tribunal members across all jurisdictions. This includes recruitment targeted at First-tier Tribunal chambers with the greatest business need.

• Smarter case management. The Government is encouraging the greater use of technology to speed up the start to end process from receipt of appeal applications to their disposal. For example, in the Employment Tribunals, HMCTS has introduced a new digital case-management system, legal-officer triage, remote-hearing technology and a “virtual region” to hear appeal applications more efficiently. We are also investing in expanding our mediation offering to resolve cases before they reach the Tribunal, such as in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal where we have expanded the remit of Judicial Alternative Dispute Resolution.

We expect these actions to have a positive effect on timeliness performance.