Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the extra capacity required to reduce the backlog of outstanding cases in the criminal courts.

There are currently no plans to legislate to reduce the statutory minimum number of jurors. Were the Ministry to propose any legislation we would provide full details of any sunset clause.

HMCTS has published a Court Recovery Plan which summarises the measures that are being taken. The Court Recovery Plan can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus Jury trials have safely resumed in most Crown Courts and we have announced a number of Nightingale Courts which will further support recovery.