Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the impact of crown court backlogs on (a) custody time limits and (b) the number of violent offenders at risk of being released due to these limits expiring.

Judges continue to work to prioritise cases involving custody time limits to ensure they are listed at the first available opportunity, as well as prioritising cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses (including youth cases), domestic abuse and serious sex cases. Judges have the discretion to extend custody time limits on a case-by-case basis. We continue to monitor volumes of CTL cases closely.

Last year we temporarily increased custody time limits from 6 months to 8 months to ensure dangerous defendants are not free to roam our streets while awaiting trial.

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.

The Ministry of Justice’s Spending Review settlement provides £477 million to improve waiting times for victims and to reduce Crown court backlogs caused by the pandemic.