Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans her Department has to modernise family courts across England Wales; and if she will make a statement.

I want our legal services and justice system to be the best in the world and I am totally committed to the Court Reform Programme. We are investing close to £1billion to reform and digitalise our courts and tribunal services to deliver swifter and more certain justice. Family Justice has an important place within the HMCTS Reform programme.

The first element of the family service to be transformed under the HMCTS Reform Programme is the divorce service. As a result, users will be able to issue and progress their divorce application online whilst accessing improved guidance and signposting to help them to understand each step in the process and get things right first time. They will also be able to track the progress of their case online.

Work on transforming the divorce service has already commenced with future plans including modernisation of the administration of public law, adoption, private law and family law act applications.

Future changes are planned to modernise and digitalise our service in relation to public law, adoption, private law and other types of family application over the coming years.