Courts: Coronavirus

(asked on 28th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the announcement of 21 September 2020 entitled Eight more Nightingale Courts to deliver justice, how many of those nightingale courts can hold criminal court cases; and how many criminal court trials have been held at nightingale courts since March 2020.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 5th October 2020

Five of the additional eight Nightingale courts announced on the 21 September 2020 will hear criminal court cases. All Nightingale courts help free up more room in existing courts to hear other cases, including custodial jury trials, which require cells and secure dock facilities to keep the public, victims and witnesses safe.

Information requested on criminal court trials is a subset of data that will be used to produce future National Statistics publications. Statistics on criminal court trials from the period Nightingale courts were operational (Q3 2020 Jul-Sept) are scheduled to be published on 17 December 2020 and I am therefore unable to provide these figures at this time.

HMCTS has published an update on their response to covid-19 in the criminal courts in England and Wales (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus). This provides a comprehensive update on recovery plans and includes details about Nightingale courts.

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