Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to resolve delays in the court system.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to bearing down on the outstanding caseload and delivering swifter justice for victims, but the challenge facing the Crown Court is significant.
Courts are sitting at, or close to, maximum judicial capacity in almost every jurisdiction, including family and civil, with record investment this year. We are also continuing to invest in the recruitment of c.1,000 judges and tribunal members annually across all jurisdictions.
In the criminal courts, we have announced funding for a record 111,250 Crown Court sitting days for this financial year. This is 5,000 higher than the previous Government funded for the last financial year. There are a range of initiatives underway across the criminal justice system to enhance efficiency within different parts of the system.
But we need to go further and deliver sustainable longer-term reform to make the system fit for the future. This is why we have launched an independent review into the efficiency of the criminal courts, led by Sir Brian Leveson, to deliver once-in-a-generation reform. We welcome the publication of the first part of the Review. We are considering the recommendations and will respond in due course, ahead of legislating, where necessary, when Parliamentary time allows.
In the civil courts, we are seeing a reduction in the time taken between claims being made and trials.
The Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide targets for 2025/26, focused on further reducing delay and outstanding caseloads. Areas delivering the Pathfinder model in private family law have made significant progress addressing delays.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Criminal Bar Association on reducing average waiting times from point of charge to the commencement of a trial in the Crown Court.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are grateful for the dedicated work of the Criminal Bar Association and their continued engagement with the Department regarding criminal court reform. The legal sector is integral to the functioning of the justice system.
As of June 2025, the Crown Court backlog reached a new high of 78,329. We recognise the impact on victims when trials do not proceed as planned. That is why in December 2024, the Government asked Sir Brian Leveson to conduct an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, to propose bold and ambitious reforms to improve timelines in courts and deliver swift justice for victims.
The Department has had regular ministerial and official-level engagement on actions to tackle the Crown Court backlog with a wide range of stakeholders, including the Criminal Bar Association.
We are currently considering the first part of Sir Brian’s report and will respond in due course. We look forward to continued engagement with the Criminal Bar Association on this issue in the coming months.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the answer received to question 87406 on the 11th November 2025 on Legal Aid Scheme: Housing and Immigration, whether the uplift will be backdated, once the system is back up and running, to a date when the uplift would otherwise have been implemented.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
As stated in our consultation response ‘Civil legal aid: Towards a sustainable future’, published in July 2025, we will implement the fee uplifts as soon as operationally possible. We will not backdate the fee uplifts.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the press release entitled Crime cutting courts to target prolific offending hotspots, published on 25 July 2025, whether the expansion will include Bedfordshire.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The expansion of Intensive Supervision Courts, as set out in the press release of 25 July 2025, builds on the success of the pilot in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Teesside. Following this, the Ministry of Justice launched an open Expression of Interest process, which was promoted widely through both national and local criminal justice partners, inviting local areas to apply. This process has now closed, and successful applicants will be announced in the coming months.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Crown Courts in each of the six circuits in England and Wales are not used for five days per week.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publish quarterly data concerning the open caseload at the Crown Court by geographic breakdown including region and individual courthouse. That data can be found in the ‘Receipts, disposals and open cases in the Crown Court’ tool which is available at the following link: Criminal court statistics quarterly: April to June 2025 - GOV.UK. Quarterly caseload data is published at the end of the following quarter, following a process of data validation and analysis. Therefore, the data for July – September will be published at the end of December, and data for November (as requested) will be published at the end of March 2026.
While over two-thirds of trials currently listed in the Crown Court have hearing dates set within the coming 12 months, a relatively small proportion have allocated dates further out. This can be for many reasons, but is always allocated under independent judicial direction and supervision. The furthest future trial dates by Region are set out as follows:
To improve timeliness in the courts and bring swifter justice for victims, the previous Lord Chancellor asked Sir Brian Leveson to chair an Independent Review of Criminal Courts, to propose once-in-a-generation reform. The first part of the Review has now been published. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals before setting out the Government’s full response.
The information requested around courtroom usage could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The Crown Court operates from 84 buildings across England and Wales, with a core estate of over 500 courtrooms. Most are jury-enabled and suitable for trials, with the remainder supporting other judicial work, such as interlocutory hearings. The wider HMCTS estate — including magistrates’, civil, family, and tribunal rooms — can also be used for Crown Court business when required. As a result, the precise number of rooms available for Crown Court use at any given time is variable.
HMCTS’s priority is to ensure all funded sitting days are fully utilised each financial year through active courtroom management. Estate capacity is not a limiting factor: last year, we sat 107,771, representing over 99% of our allocation, and we remain on track to deliver all allocated days this year.
Temporary unavailability may arise due to maintenance, but also due to overspill from other trials, alternative judicial activities (such as, box work, civil, family and tribunals hearings, or coroner’s court work), or other legitimate uses (including meetings and video-link sessions). However, these factors do not prevent the Crown Courts from sitting at their funded allocation.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much from the public purse has been spent by the Legal Aid Agency on (a) legal representation and (b) pre-action work challenging removals under the one-in, one-out migrant returns policy since 1 July 2025.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information relating to legal aid expenditure challenging removals under the one-in one-out pilot is not centrally held. Although legal aid expenditure broken down by category is published on a quarterly basis as part of the Legal Aid Agency’s Official Statistics.
In order to obtain information relating to the number of legal aid certificates granted for cases which make specific reference to either the one-in one-out migrant returns policy or removals to France, it would be necessary to manually review every single application for legal representation in connection with judicial review proceedings in the immigration context. That could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many legal aid certificates have been granted for cases referencing (a) the one-in, one-out migrant returns policy and (b) removals to France since July 2025.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information relating to legal aid expenditure challenging removals under the one-in one-out pilot is not centrally held. Although legal aid expenditure broken down by category is published on a quarterly basis as part of the Legal Aid Agency’s Official Statistics.
In order to obtain information relating to the number of legal aid certificates granted for cases which make specific reference to either the one-in one-out migrant returns policy or removals to France, it would be necessary to manually review every single application for legal representation in connection with judicial review proceedings in the immigration context. That could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases were waiting to be heard in Crown Courts in each circuit in England and Wales on 11 November 2025.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publish quarterly data concerning the open caseload at the Crown Court by geographic breakdown including region and individual courthouse. That data can be found in the ‘Receipts, disposals and open cases in the Crown Court’ tool which is available at the following link: Criminal court statistics quarterly: April to June 2025 - GOV.UK. Quarterly caseload data is published at the end of the following quarter, following a process of data validation and analysis. Therefore, the data for July – September will be published at the end of December, and data for November (as requested) will be published at the end of March 2026.
While over two-thirds of trials currently listed in the Crown Court have hearing dates set within the coming 12 months, a relatively small proportion have allocated dates further out. This can be for many reasons, but is always allocated under independent judicial direction and supervision. The furthest future trial dates by Region are set out as follows:
To improve timeliness in the courts and bring swifter justice for victims, the previous Lord Chancellor asked Sir Brian Leveson to chair an Independent Review of Criminal Courts, to propose once-in-a-generation reform. The first part of the Review has now been published. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals before setting out the Government’s full response.
The information requested around courtroom usage could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The Crown Court operates from 84 buildings across England and Wales, with a core estate of over 500 courtrooms. Most are jury-enabled and suitable for trials, with the remainder supporting other judicial work, such as interlocutory hearings. The wider HMCTS estate — including magistrates’, civil, family, and tribunal rooms — can also be used for Crown Court business when required. As a result, the precise number of rooms available for Crown Court use at any given time is variable.
HMCTS’s priority is to ensure all funded sitting days are fully utilised each financial year through active courtroom management. Estate capacity is not a limiting factor: last year, we sat 107,771, representing over 99% of our allocation, and we remain on track to deliver all allocated days this year.
Temporary unavailability may arise due to maintenance, but also due to overspill from other trials, alternative judicial activities (such as, box work, civil, family and tribunals hearings, or coroner’s court work), or other legitimate uses (including meetings and video-link sessions). However, these factors do not prevent the Crown Courts from sitting at their funded allocation.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how far in advance Crown Court trial dates are being set for each of the six circuits in England and Wales.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publish quarterly data concerning the open caseload at the Crown Court by geographic breakdown including region and individual courthouse. That data can be found in the ‘Receipts, disposals and open cases in the Crown Court’ tool which is available at the following link: Criminal court statistics quarterly: April to June 2025 - GOV.UK. Quarterly caseload data is published at the end of the following quarter, following a process of data validation and analysis. Therefore, the data for July – September will be published at the end of December, and data for November (as requested) will be published at the end of March 2026.
While over two-thirds of trials currently listed in the Crown Court have hearing dates set within the coming 12 months, a relatively small proportion have allocated dates further out. This can be for many reasons, but is always allocated under independent judicial direction and supervision. The furthest future trial dates by Region are set out as follows:
To improve timeliness in the courts and bring swifter justice for victims, the previous Lord Chancellor asked Sir Brian Leveson to chair an Independent Review of Criminal Courts, to propose once-in-a-generation reform. The first part of the Review has now been published. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals before setting out the Government’s full response.
The information requested around courtroom usage could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The Crown Court operates from 84 buildings across England and Wales, with a core estate of over 500 courtrooms. Most are jury-enabled and suitable for trials, with the remainder supporting other judicial work, such as interlocutory hearings. The wider HMCTS estate — including magistrates’, civil, family, and tribunal rooms — can also be used for Crown Court business when required. As a result, the precise number of rooms available for Crown Court use at any given time is variable.
HMCTS’s priority is to ensure all funded sitting days are fully utilised each financial year through active courtroom management. Estate capacity is not a limiting factor: last year, we sat 107,771, representing over 99% of our allocation, and we remain on track to deliver all allocated days this year.
Temporary unavailability may arise due to maintenance, but also due to overspill from other trials, alternative judicial activities (such as, box work, civil, family and tribunals hearings, or coroner’s court work), or other legitimate uses (including meetings and video-link sessions). However, these factors do not prevent the Crown Courts from sitting at their funded allocation.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department has had with the Home Office on proposals to ban first cousin marriage.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice regularly engages with other Government Departments, including the Home Office, on a range of issues relating to marriage law.