Found: Ministry of Justice, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, and Ministry of

Found: His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) – HM Courts and Tribunals Service is responsible

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to improve data capture on the (a) number of private law proceedings that involve allegations of child sexual abuse and (b) outcomes of these cases.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

HM Courts and Tribunals Service will be introducing a new case management system for private law children‘s cases, Manage Cases. This system will identify each type of abuse or harm allegation made by an applicant, including child sexual abuse. This will support data capture of the number of proceedings in which child sexual abuse is a factor and the outcome of these cases. The national roll out of the new digital system is expected to begin later this year.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) judges and (b) other people were employed in the Employment Tribunal by HM Courts and Tribunals Service in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those roles were vacant in that time period.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The number of judges and members of tribunals is published annually in the ‘Diversity of the Judiciary’ statistics. Headcount figures can be found at the tabs named “3_2_JO_Area”.

• 2020: diversity-of-the-judiciary-2020-data-tables.ods

• 2021: diversity-of-the-judiciary-2021-data-tables.ods

• 2022: Judicial_diversity_2022_Tables.ods

• 2023: 2023_JDS_tables.ods

• 2024: JDS_2024_tables_-_FINAL_v3.ods

We are maintaining investment in the annual recruitment of about 1,000 judges and non-legal tribunal members across all jurisdictions. Annual recruitment requirements for judicial and non-legal tribunal members are determined by business need and judicial departures.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service has recorded Employment Tribunal staff (including legal caseworker) headcount in December each year as follows between 2020 and 2024:

Staff vacancies in the Employment Tribunal over this period are not held centrally. Recruitment requirements for HMCTS staff and legal officers in the Employment Tribunal is determined in response to business need and staff departures.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will hold discussions with HM Courts and Tribunals Service on the potential merits of ensuring that domestic abuse victims attending Liverpool Family Court can use a different entrance to the building to that of their alleged perpetrator.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

It is important that the Family Court works for children and families. That is why the Government is committed to ensuring there are adequate protections in place for users and that we improve the timeliness of cases.

I am aware that, due to the building’s architecture, layout and shared use there are issues in arranging separate entrances at Liverpool Family Court. To mitigate this, it is possible to arrange staggered arrival times, secure waiting rooms and separate exits. Special measures can be requested by contacting the court as soon as possible, ideally 5 days before the hearing. Liverpool Family Court's contact details can be found at: Liverpool Civil and Family Court - Find a Court or Tribunal - GOV.UK.

We recognise the significant impact that delay can have on children and families. We are committed to tackling backlog of cases we inherited from the previous Government and the latest published data shows progress is being made. When comparing October to December 2024 to the same period in 2023, under the previous Government, the average duration of private law cases has fallen from 45 to 42 weeks and care proceedings over the same period have fallen from 42 weeks to 36. We know that there is more to do and the Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide targets for 2025/26 and these are focused on increasing the proportion of public law cases concluded within the statutory 26-week timeframe and closing the longest running cases in both private and public law. To support this, Cheshire and Merseyside is a designated Trailblazer area, developing and testing targeted solutions to address the biggest local drivers of delays.

Our new Pathfinder courts are improving the experience and outcomes for children and parents involved in private law proceedings, and particularly those who may need additional support such as domestic abuse survivors. The pilot courts work closely with local domestic abuse agencies, including Independent Domestic Violence Advisers. The Pathfinder pilot started in February 2022 in Dorset and North Wales. It was expanded to Southeast Wales and Birmingham in 2024 and Mid and West Wales on 3 March 2025. Pathfinder will be rolled out to West Yorkshire on 3 June. Areas delivering the Pathfinder model for private family law are making significant progress in addressing delay, with the initial two pilot sites showing an 11-week reduction in average case duration and a 50% reduction in outstanding caseloads between February 2022 and November 2024.

Alongside improving how cases move through the system we need to properly support those involved. Victims of domestic abuse must receive emotional and practical support to recover and rebuild their lives. The Ministry of Justice provide Police and Crime Commissioners with annual grant funding to commission local support services. This includes ring-fenced funding for sexual violence and domestic abuse community-based services and Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisors. Alongside this the Home Office runs the Flexible Fund, administered by Women’s Aid, which offers financial support to victims in specific circumstances.

Found: General Register Office and divorce data (including civil partnerships) provided by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: General Register Office and divorce data (including civil partnerships) provided by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: HMCTS HM Courts and Tribunals Service IDVA Independent Domestic Violence Adviser Legacy (cases) Child

Found: change in Court or Tribunals process or an increase / decrease in applications / cases to HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: change in Court or Tribunals process or an increase / decrease in applications / cases to HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: General said: “The Welsh Government has followed the agreed procedures to make the HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: The Welsh Government has followed the agreed procedures to make the HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: UK Government (Ministry of Justice/HM Courts and Tribunals Service) 7.333 The proposed amendment is

Found: UK Government (Ministry of Justice/HM Courts and Tribunals Service) 7.280 The proposed amendment is