Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to clear the backlog of cases awaiting trial in rural areas.

We continue to take action to tackle the impact the pandemic has had on our criminal justice system

We have allocated over a quarter of a billion pounds on recovery in the last financial year, making court buildings safe, rolling out new technology for remote hearings, recruiting additional staff and opening Nightingale courtrooms, including retaining 32 Nightingale Court rooms until the end of March 2022.

We are now focused both on increasing capacity of the criminal courts and maximising use of that which we already have in areas where it is needed most. There is no limit on the number of days Crown Courts can sit this financial year. The department is also working closely with the judiciary to ensure We have the capacity required to maximise the number of court hearings taking place this year and to minimise disruption to cases listed for hearings.

We are also working with the judiciary to explore moving cases across regional boundaries to areas with spare capacity where appropriate, and using a national, flexible pool of judges for regions to draw from as required, to manage regional discrepancies in pressure across the courts system.

The Spending Review will also provide an extra £477m for the criminal justice system to meet the increased demand from additional police officers and to recover performance following the pandemic.