Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what checks are undertaken to ensure Hon Members and other individuals are not sent court orders to which (a) they are not party and (b) have sensitive personal information of others.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) processed the claim accurately and in accordance with the information provided by the claimant.
HMCTS has advised that the hon. Member for Slough’s parliamentary email address was included on the claim form by the claimant to the proceedings as the contact address for the Second Defendant. As a result, this was added to the court database and would generate court correspondence including court orders to the hon. Member’s parliamentary email address.
HMCTS received an email from the MP’s office on 29 December 2025 and the court issued a response to him on the same day. The MP continued to receive correspondence because his office did not specify that the email address should be removed. The court would usually require notification and evidence that an administrative error has been made so the individual's details can be removed from the court record.
Documents were sent to the hon. Member for Slough who is not a party to this case rather than to the second defendant. HMCTS has corrected this and is ensuring service on the second defendant and will notify all parties.
This is not a matter for the Information Commissioners Office as HMCTS has followed the process and accurately recorded the claim details from the claimant’s form.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 23 December 2025 to Question 100768, whether AI-generated transcripts will have the same evidential status as human-produced transcripts for the purposes of a) appeals and b) judicial review.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS recognises the significant potential for AI transcription to drive greater efficiency and opportunities for expanding open justice across the courts and tribunals. As such, HMCTS is piloting how automated transcription (using AI) could assist judges in preparing and writing decisions in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber. This work is one of 15 AI Exemplar projects across government.
In line with HMCTS Responsible AI principles, any work to scale the provision of AI-generated transcripts across the courts and tribunals would need to ensure appropriate human manual review processes and define the evidential status of AI-generated transcripts. In other words, AI transcripts are reviewed by humans to ensure fairness and accuracy.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of legal services exports on economic growth.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The UK legal sector is a national asset and an engine of economic growth. As highlighted in the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy, in 2024 alone, the UK legal sector contributed £42.6 billion to the economy and posted a trade surplus of £7.4 billion. The UK is the largest legal services market in Europe and is second only to the US globally. English law is vital to global trade and investment and governs 40% of cross-border business transactions, £11.5 billion in mediation cases and £80 billion in insurance contracts annually. The Ministry of Justice is committed to supporting the sector’s growth and to maintaining the UK’s position at the forefront of global legal services.
As a catalyst for economic growth, legal services play an important role in the UK’s growth agenda. The Ministry of Justice works to support UK legal services across the globe, including in the European Union. My Department is working closely across government, with our EU counterparts and with the legal sector, to support the implementation of the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The Agreement includes a specific provision on legal services that entitles UK lawyers to practise home and international law across the EU without further qualification. This is helping to maintain the UK’s strong cross-border legal capability and ensuring continued access to European markets.
To maintain the UK’s position at the forefront of global legal services, as part of the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy, the Ministry of Justice has designed bespoke interventions to support growth across key areas of the sector. They focus on enhancing our court system and the attractiveness of the jurisdiction, supporting lawtech growth, demonstrating our commitment to the Rule of Law and maintaining the strength of English and Welsh law. As a major step in delivering our commitments, the Deputy Prime Minister launched the English Law Promotion Panel on 8 December 2025. Bringing together academics, and key legal, business and marketing experts, the Panel will focus on how to reinforce English and Welsh law’s status as a leading choice for international business. My Department also leads the GREAT legal services campaign, a long-standing initiative showcasing the strengths of English and Welsh law, promoting the UK as a leading hub for international dispute resolution and facilitating international engagement with overseas partners. I have joined GREAT trade missions including visits to Toronto in November 2025 and Chicago in April 2025 to personally champion UK legal services to a global audience.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of current waiting times in the civil justice system on the competitiveness of the justice system in England and Wales compared to other jurisdictions.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government understands the importance of timely and effective civil justice to England and Wales’ position as an international centre of dispute resolution. We are working towards our goal of a civil justice system in which people and businesses can resolve their disputes and exercise their rights quickly and efficiently at the earliest opportunity.
We acknowledge that the slow processing of claims can have a detrimental effect on business, and that lengthy civil disputes are a drag on economic growth. The quarterly period covering July to September 2025 showed the median time taken for small claims to go from issue to trial 5.9 weeks faster than the year before. For fast, intermediate and multi-track claims, it was 5.1 weeks faster than the year before. It is worth noting, however, this metric only captures the claims which go to full hearing: less than 5% of County Court claims issued. Timeliness is not the only factor which makes our justice system competitive; the high quality of our legal services and judiciary, the international appeal of English Law and our clear procedural rules all contribute to our status as jurisdiction of choice for international litigation.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many enforcement actions or penalties have been issued for age discrimination in recruitment in each of the past three years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data on compensation and costs awarded for Employment Tribunal on age discrimination is published within the official statistics: Employment_and_EAT_2023_24.ods.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals relating to the use of judge-only trials for certain criminal offences.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We intend to introduce legislation to deliver structural reforms to the criminal courts, announced by the Deputy Prime Minister on 2 December 2025 in response to Part 1 of Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review, as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Zöe Franklin (Liberal Democrat - Guildford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the Civil Procedure Rules.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Civil Procedure Rules provide a framework for a fair, transparent, efficient and proportionate civil justice system. The Rules are regularly updated to support court services, to reflect wider changes in legislation and societal need, and in response to issues in practice and case law. Generally, there are at least two statutory instruments per year (April and October) which amend the Rules and ensure they remain up to date and relevant. These updates are made under the negative resolution SI process, which is subject to the related parliamentary scrutiny, having first been signed by Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC) members, Master of the Rolls and Minister of State for Justice.
In addition to the Government keeping the Rules under review in conjunction with the CPRC, the Civil Justice Council (a statutory advisory body chaired by the Master of the Rolls) keeps the civil justice system under review and makes recommendations on, how to make the civil justice system more accessible, fair, and efficient. The Council routinely refers proposed amendments to the Rules to the CPRC for consideration.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many phone calls to court phone numbers are unanswered on average per day; and what is this number as a percentage of all calls.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are unable to provide data on calls made to local Court and Tribunal venues. However, HM Courts & Tribunals Service regularly publishes data on calls made to service centres which can be found through the following link: HMCTS management information – modernised services - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take steps to (a) remove the cap on the number of days courts can sit, (b) help ensure prisoners are transported to court on time, (c) hold discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service on the removal of cases from the backlog, (d) help support the recruitment of more public sector barristers and (e) help ensure that court buildings are fit for purpose.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government inherited a justice system in crisis, with a record and rising open caseload of nearly 80,000 criminal cases waiting to be heard and too many victims waiting years for justice.
In the Crown Court for this financial year (2025/26), we are funding 111,250 sitting days – the highest number of sitting days on record and over 5,000 more than the previous Government funded for the last financial year. The Deputy Prime Minister and Lady Chief Justice continue discussions on allocation for 2026-27, aiming to give an unprecedented three-year certainty to the system. The Deputy Prime Minister has been clear that sitting days in the Crown and magistrates’ courts must continue to rise and his ambition is to continue breaking records by the end of this Parliament. We will provide Parliament with an update on the sitting day allocations in the usual way at the conclusion of the Concordat process.
Prisoners should be produced on time and we are committed to making improvements where we can. Prisoner transport delivery is regularly reviewed and a significant number of contract changes have been made already to adapt to the changing operational requirement. But even if every prison van ran like clockwork tomorrow, we would still be left with a backlog edging towards 100,000 cases. Prisoner transport delays are a symptom of a stretched system, not a cure for it.
There is no quick fix to the criminal courts crisis, and no single lever that can be pulled. It is vital that all system partners work together to deliver swifter justice for victims. We continue to talk to system partners, including the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), to consider options, including those in Sir Brian Leveson’s Part I report on criminal court reform. In June 2025, the Chancellor announced a landmark increase of £96 million (RDELex) in additional funding for the CPS over the spending review period 2026-2029. This will help CPS protect victims by tackling the backlog, speeding up justice, and delivering a justice system that services victims.
We are investing up to an additional £34 million per year for criminal legal aid advocates. We are also taking forward Sir Brian’s recommendation to match-fund a number of criminal barrister pupillages, with a particular focus on opening a career at the criminal Bar to even more young people from across society.
This Government has also secured record investment of up to £450 million per year for the courts system over the Spending Review period, alongside investing £148.5 million in court and tribunal maintenance and project funding this financial year, £28.5 million more than the previous Government funded last financial year.
But investment alone is not enough – that is why this Government asked Sir Brian Leveson to undertake his Independent Review of the Criminal Courts. On 2 December, the Deputy Prime Minister responded to the first part of that review and set out why structural court reform is necessary, alongside investment and modernisation.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of support available to parents applying to the Court of Protection for an order authorising access to their child's (a) Child Trust Fund and (b) Junior ISA when their child lacks capacity to manage their financial assets.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Where a young adult lacks mental capacity, the law requires parents or a guardian to have legal authority to make decisions on their behalf about financial assets or property. This longstanding requirement is vital in ensuring that vulnerable people are safeguarded and protected from potential financial abuse. The requirement for legal authority extends to accessing funds held in a Child Trust Fund or a Junior ISA.
On 9 June 2023, the Ministry of Justice published the ‘Making Financial Decisions for young people: parent and carer toolkit’ explaining the process by which parents and guardians of disabled children who lack capacity can obtain legal authority if no other arrangements are in place to provide such authority. This can be done by making an application to the Court of Protection for an order authorising access to monies held in a Child Trust Fund or Junior ISA. The toolkit is available on Gov.UK. Information to assist parents or carers in the completion of one of the required court forms can be found here: How to apply to make property and finance decisions on someone’s behalf (including Child Trust Funds) - GOV.UK
Ministers are working closely to consider what further steps could be taken to ameliorate the process for supporting young people without capacity to access small value capital assets. The Ministry of Justice will continue to engage with key stakeholders to understand more about the difficulties and potential changes to address these while maintaining necessary safeguards.