Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many trials have adjourned as a result of contractors failing to deliver prisoners to trial in the last year.

The question has been interpreted to mean ineffective trials that do not start on their intended start date and need rescheduling. Trials can become ineffective for many reasons, owing to the action or inaction of the parties, or of the courts. Delays or failures to bring prisoners to court are one such reason.

Data on trial effectiveness at the criminal courts, by reason for ineffectiveness, is published as part of the Criminal court statistics quarterly series.

Applying the “reason” filter in the pivot table in Trial Effectiveness at Criminal Courts document enables the reader to select reasons why trials have been ineffective. Tab 14 shows instances where the defendant’s not having been produced by prisoner escort and custody services led to an ineffective trial. This includes all instances where a prisoner was not produced on time, regardless of whether the contractor was at fault. The most recent publication can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2025.