Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Scott of Bybrook on 23 December 2020 (HL11501), what is the parent court for each Nightingale court; and what was (1) the number of days sat in each parent court from 1 January 2019 to the date on which its Nightingale court opened, and (2) the number of days sat in each parent court from the date on which its Nightingale court opened.

We have now opened Nightingale courts at 21 locations bringing the total number of temporary court rooms set up nationwide to 40. These additional temporary courtrooms have allowed us to increase capacity, particularly for jury trials, in locations where there is an operational requirement and hold additional hearings within a safe environment.

A list of Nightingale parent courts and the number of days sat in each parent court is provided in the table below using the latest available validated data.

Table showing data on sitting days covering the period 1 January 2019 to 30 November 2020

1. If a courtroom has been used at all on a given day, we count that as 1 ‘day sat’

2. Includes Telford Justice Centre Annex

3. Manchester Tribunals: Includes Alexandra House – Manchester Tribunal and Piccadilly Exchange – Manchester Tribunal

Data and management information can change over time and are not subject to the same level of checks as official statistics. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available.

Ensuring that we can operate safely during the Covid-19 pandemic is our top priority. We have put in place measures in our court rooms so that they can hold Covid-19 secure trials, moved to virtual hearings where possible and opened additional court rooms in Nightingale courts as part of a package to increase available capacity.