Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, what criteria will be used to evaluate the success of the AI-assisted listing pilot within HMCTS.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS will evaluate the pilot of AI-enabled support for listing against criteria that will include expected:
reductions in administrative effort associated with listing;
improved timeliness and consistency of listing activity;
the impact on listing accuracy and associated rework; and
the effect on effective use of court capacity.
This will be considered alongside feedback from operational users and the judiciary on usability and confidence. Findings from this stage of the evaluation will inform decisions on any wider deployment. If we proceed, we will design an evaluation approach in line with Government Social Research standards that we would expect to publish as part of the programme of work.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, what steps he is taking to ensure that AI court assistance does not lead to listing errors.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS is developing and piloting AI-enabled support for operational activity such as listing in a way that retains appropriate human oversight and accountability for decisions. In line with HMCTS Responsible AI principles, any work to scale AI-enabled tools will include robust processes for how issues and errors will be identified, challenged and corrected. Lessons learned from pilots in courts such as Preston and Isleworth, and subsequent evaluation will inform what safeguards are required for any future wider deployment. All of these have been subject to human oversight and are there to assist decision making in accordance with a new national listing framework to be introduced.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, what estimate he has made of the time savings from the use of AI to transcribe hearings across the court system.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS is progressing work to expand AI-enabled transcription to support courts and tribunals. The Department has not published an estimate of time savings from the use of AI to transcribe hearings across the court system. It is worth noting that transcription of hearings is one of several use cases for AI assisted transcription. The main driver for hearing transcription is to make justice more open and transparent.
In line with HMCTS Responsible AI principles, decisions on scaling AI-enabled transcription will be informed by evaluation, including impacts on efficiency, quality and user experience, and will include robust processes for how errors will be identified, challenged and corrected.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, what estimate he has made of the cost of rolling out the proposed AI courts assistant across HMCTS.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is progressing work to expand the use of AI to support court and tribunal operations across a range of use cases. The Department has not published a single estimate of the cost of rolling out AI across HMCTS, as costs and benefits depend on the specific use case, scope and implementation approach. Any decision to deploy AI-enabled tools more widely would be subject to appropriate evaluation and the development of approved business cases, including affordability and value for money in accordance with HMCTS governance and standards.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, whether blitz courts will be delivered through new additional capacity.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Blitz courts have been trialled previously and have shown positive results in reducing case backlog. The announcement of uncapped sitting days in the Crown Court in 2026/27 will enable more blitz initiatives to take place. The two court rooms which will be used are part of the existing London Crown Court Cluster.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, how many blitz court sittings are planned from April 2026; and what offences will be prioritised after assaults on emergency workers.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Blitz courts in London will initially focus on assault on emergency workers and will be listed at Central Criminal Court from April. A total of 500 days have been allocated for this first blitz initiative. After prioritising assaults on emergency workers, we will consider other case types including sentencing cases, breaches and trials with no civilian witnesses.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, whether he has conducted an equality impact assessment on the expanded use of AI within courts and tribunals.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department and HMCTS have due regard to their obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty when developing and implementing policy and operational changes. Equality considerations are taken into account as part of the design and evaluation of service changes, and appropriate equality analysis has informed, and will continue to inform, decisions on the adoption and scaling of AI-enabled tools and services within courts and tribunals. This is undertaken on a use-case-by-use-case basis, rather than through a single blanket assessment.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Derby (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sport and Physical Activity in the Criminal Justice System’s report Physical Activity and Sport across the Children and Young People Secure Estate, and Adult Custodial Estate in England and Wales, published in December 2025.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We appreciate the considerable work that has gone into the inquiry.
His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has been engaged with the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group over many years, including in relation to this latest review. HMPPS will give careful consideration, in collaboration with other partners, to those recommendations in the report that are addressed to it.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure transparency in the use of statutory consultation in the appointment of judges.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Lord Chancellor is committed to transparent and merit-based selection processes that maintain the quality of our judiciary.
Statutory consultation is provided for in legislation and requires the independent Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) to seek views from those with relevant experience, unless the appropriate authority agrees it is not required. It is one of a range of shortlisting and selection tools used by the JAC to ensure that candidates are of good character and have relevant capabilities for the role.
The JAC made changes to the operation of statutory consultation following an independent review in 2022 to provide clearer information about when and how statutory consultation is used. It has recently published an evaluation of those changes alongside updated guidance for candidates and consultees (https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/corp-publication/evaluation-on-the-revised-approach-to-statutory-consultation/).
Candidates can complain to the JAC and, if dissatisfied, to the independent Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman if they believe that their application for appointment has not been handled appropriately.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with the Judicial Appointment Commission on its use of resources to challenge Freedom of Information requests.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The independent Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) is designated as a public body under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). The JAC is responsible for meeting its statutory obligations under the FOIA and the Data Protection Act 2018, including ensuring requests are handled in line with the relevant legislation. Decisions on the responses to individual Freedom of Information requests, including any associated legal consideration, are for the JAC.
The JAC as a non-departmental public body is responsible for managing its own resources including in relation to meeting its statutory obligations. The governance and accountability arrangements between the Ministry of Justice and the JAC are set out in the framework document agreed in line with HM Treasury’s Managing Public Money, including in relation to governance and financial matters