Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 on court workloads relating to possession proceedings; and whether administrative or time-limited possession processes have been considered where landlords have complied fully with regulatory requirements.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
My Department continues to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that the justice system is well prepared for the implementation of the Renters Right’s Act 2025, including the impact on the County Court. We will ensure that the County Court has the resources and capacity it need to handle the additional possession workload these reforms will generate. A core part of this work is the development of a brand new digital possession service.
In relation to administrative possession, the Government considers it important that a tenant has the opportunity to attend a possession hearing as this is vital for tenants’ access to justice, especially in the new tenancy system where landlords must always evidence that possession grounds have been met.
In relation to time limits, the Civil Procedure Rules have a target for all possession hearings to be listed within 8 weeks of issue. We believe this appropriate and balances the rights of the tenant and landlord.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether ethnicity data is collected centrally for individuals convicted of human trafficking or sexual exploitation offences.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions, including details around ethnicity, for a wide range of offences, including offences related to human trafficking or sexual exploitation in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics - GOV.UK
Criminal Courts data concerning nationality is not collated by the Ministry of Justice. Data on nationality is not operationally required to progress a case and deliver a justice outcome.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many individuals convicted of sexual offences have been sentenced to immediate custody during the current Parliament; and what percentage of all individuals convicted of sexual offences received an immediate custodial sentence during that same period.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions and sentences for a variety of offences, including sexual offences, in the Outcomes by Offences data tool. The tool can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics - GOV.UK. The data can be filtered by ‘month’ and ‘year’.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to apply trial by a single judge sitting alone retrospectively to defendants who have already entered a plea and elected trial by jury.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is focused on bringing down the backlog as soon as possible. Once the criminal court reforms come into force, they will apply to existing cases, provided the trial has not yet commenced. This will mean that cases which are past the point of initial mode of trial determination, but have not yet commenced trial, will be able to be changed from jury trial to trial by judge alone (either under the Crown Court Bench Division or on the grounds of technical complexity or length). Cases which are in the Crown Court will be retained within that jurisdiction.
Cases already part-way through a jury trial will proceed with a jury trial. Similarly, cases already assigned to one court jurisdiction (magistrates’ court or Crown Court) will not be reallocated to another jurisdiction.
The reason for taking this approach is so that the time savings and benefits of the reforms can be felt as soon as possible. Allowing pending cases to be tried by judge alone will enable us to start tackling the open caseload as soon as the new legislation is enacted, delivering swifter justice for victims without compromising defendants’ rights or fairness. It will also avoid two different procedures running in parallel in the Crown Court as a result of arbitrary cut-off dates. The application of procedural changes to existing cases is consistent with longstanding legal practice.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how his Department plans to promote the National Year of Reading within the criminal justice system.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The National Year of Reading is a welcome opportunity to promote a wide range of activity to improve literacy and engagement with reading for people in custody and on probation.
As part of this work we have appointed the first ever Prison Reading Laureate, the author Lee Child. He will champion the transformative power of reading across the criminal justice system, continue expansion of his successful literacy pilot programme which has been running in a number of prisons since 2025 and will bring in more authors to work with prisons across the country, promoting the benefits of reading to rehabilitation.
Reading is a priority for HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) who work with many voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations such as the Reading Agency and National Literacy Trust. A programme of work is planned throughout this year to improve national access to books and facilitate workshops with authors. The Youth Custody Service is also launching its first ever Literacy Festival to inspire reading amongst some of the most complex children in our society.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take steps to reduce the number of delays to court hearings caused by the late arrival of prisoners.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
In 2025, the overall Criminal Justice System timely delivery to court performance was 98.19%, Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) suppliers met the contractual requirement for timely delivery of prisoners to court in 99.91% of cases. The impact of recent reform policies on delivery times is under review.
In addition to its regular oversight meetings with the contractors, the PECS contract management team continues to work collaboratively with criminal justice partners to address any performance issues. Strategic Partnership Boards convene quarterly to review performance and agree strategies to drive and sustain improvement.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether they will require their department and agencies to offer payroll deductions to all employees to enable them to join a credit union.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
I can confirm that the Ministry of Justice does not currently offer or promote credit union offerings through payroll deductions. However, the Department offers financial wellbeing support and advice through the employee benefits package.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were convicted of offences relating to human trafficking or sexual exploitation in each of the last three calendar years; and what the nationality of those people was at the time of conviction.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions, including details around ethnicity, for a wide range of offences, including offences related to human trafficking or sexual exploitation in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics - GOV.UK
Criminal Courts data concerning nationality is not collated by the Ministry of Justice. Data on nationality is not operationally required to progress a case and deliver a justice outcome.
Feb. 16 2026
Source Page: UK’s largest tribunals centre opens in London to speed up delaysCorrespondence Feb. 13 2026
Committee: Justice Committee (Department: Ministry of Justice)