Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the backlog in court cases; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of setting up temporary courts to help reduce the backlog in cases.

The Government is committed to supporting the recovery of the courts and our decisive action kept justice moving during the pandemic. As a result, the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court had reduced from 60,400 cases in June 2021 to 57,900 cases at the end of March 2022. However, since April 2022 the caseload has been increasing again and it stood at 61,200 at the end of August. In the Magistrates' Courts, the criminal caseload has fallen from 445,000 in July 2020 to 360,611 in August 2022 – a reduction of over 20%.

Now that barristers have returned to work, we can work together to drive down the backlog and ensure victims see justice served sooner.

Nightingale courts were essential in keeping the wheels of justice turning throughout the pandemic. They opened across the estate to provide additional capacity for the Crown Court either directly or by hosting other work which made space for jury trials in the existing estate when social distancing restricted our ability to carry out face-to-face hearings. Since social distancing restrictions have been lifted, we have been able to re-open courtrooms. There is now 500 Crown courtrooms available, which is higher than pre-pandemic levels, and the need for additional capacity has been reduced.

We are currently operating 30 temporary Nightingale courtrooms, with the decision to extend these based on regional operational need and venue availability.