Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, to how many and what proportion of magistrates courts the domestic abuse best practice framework applies; and how many courts have dedicated sitting days for domestic abuse, broken down by region.

The domestic abuse best practice framework applies to all magistrates’ courts. The domestic abuse work in some HMCTS regions is listed together where possible into courts to make sure that the specialist provision envisaged by the framework is in place.

The information on how many courts have dedicated sitting days is not held centrally as each court has different processes for recording the use of court time.