Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the Pathfinder scheme to Hertfordshire.

The Pathfinder model is currently operating in six family court areas across England and Wales. Three further court areas will start the model on 11 November in the Black Country and Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire and in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. Courts in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight will start the model in January next year.

Further expansion of the model will be considered during the allocations process which follows the latest Spending Review, and we are unable to pre-empt the outcome of this.