Asked by: Paul Kohler (Liberal Democrat - Wimbledon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many sitting days each (a) court and (b) tribunal in England and Wales has been allocated in the 2025–26 financial year.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice interprets this question as referring to the total allocations for each court and tribunal jurisdiction for the FY 2025/26. As part of this Government’s commitment to transparency, we began publishing total sitting‑day allocations by jurisdiction last year. The table below sets out the total allocations for FY2025/26 by jurisdiction. The Government has funded each jurisdiction to sit at or close to maximum capacity.
Jurisdiction | Sitting Day Allocation |
Crown | 110,000 (later increased to 111,250). |
Magistrates (Crime) | 114,000 |
Civil | 74,300 |
Family | 97,300 |
Court of Protection | 4,900 |
Immigration and Asylum Chamber* | 22,750 |
Social Security and Child Support** | 23,000 |
Employment | 33,900 |
Mental Health | 17,000 |
Other tribunals (Specials) *** | 36,100 |
* This figure represents the total number of days funded from both Ministry of Justice and Home Office budgets. However, in order to maximise overall sittings within this funding, the total number of days allocated across the First Tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal in aggregate was slightly higher, at 23,450.
** This figure includes days funded from both Ministry of Justice and Department for Work and Pensions budgets.
*** This figure only represents the sitting days included in the Ministry of Justice's baseline funding. There are long-standing agreements with several other government departments whereby they provide funding for capacity in specific tribunals. Additional days will be sat as a result of this additional funding.
Asked by: Paul Kohler (Liberal Democrat - Wimbledon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the number of criminal legal aid firms that have ceased operating in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning legal aid services in England and Wales. The LAA monitors the number of legal aid providers contracted to provide criminal legal aid services throughout England and Wales.
Information regarding the number of legal aid providers with a criminal legal aid contract since 2018 is published as part of the LAA’s official statistics [table 9.6]. Please note that data for the current financial year has not yet been published. Information regarding number of contracted providers from 2008-2022 has previously been published in response to a PQ 121917.1
Fluctuations in provider volumes can be the result of consolidation or merger activity. As such a reduction to the overall number of firms with a contract to provide criminal legal aid services does not always equate to a loss of provision or coverage. Not all providers who cease undertaking legal aid work will have ceased operating altogether. Some firms may continue to provide criminal advice and representation on a private basis.
The LAA regularly reviews available supply of legal aid services across England and Wales to make sure there is adequate provision for legal aid, including under each criminal duty scheme, and takes operational action where it can, to respond to market pressures that may arise.
Please note that figures for 2018-2022 in the official statistics may differ for those released under the PQ as the information in the statistics presents data as at the end of the financial year whereas the PQ response presented the figures as at the start of the financial year or most recent period for which figures were available.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many unique offenders were convicted for an indictable offence and did not receive immediate custody in 2024 with i) zero, ii) 1-2, iii) 3-6, iv) 7-10, v) 11-14, vi) 15-25, vii) 26-35, viii) 36-45, ix) 46 - 60, x) 61-75 and xi) 76 or more previous convictions.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested is provided in the attached excel table. The table includes data covering 2024 on the number of offenders who received a conviction but not an immediate custodial sentence split by number of previous convictions. This data is not routinely published or held in an assessable format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent judiciary. When deciding what sentence to impose, courts must consider the circumstances of the case, including the culpability of the offender, the harm they caused or intended to cause, and any aggravating and mitigating factors, in line with any relevant sentencing guidelines, developed by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales.
Previous convictions are already a statutory aggravating factor, with Sentencing Guidelines being clear that sentencers must consider the nature and relevance of previous convictions, and the time elapsed since the previous convictions.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of his proposed changes to the right to a jury trial on the rule of law.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government will publish a full impact assessment of our proposed justice reforms in the usual way with bill introduction. That will include an assessment of the impact of the proposed changes in the threshold for who can access a jury trial. Currently, over 90% of criminal cases are already heard by magistrates, without a jury. These proposals make a modest change to the threshold. All indictable only offences and any offence with a likely sentence over three years will continue to receive a jury trial.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the number of duty solicitors available in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
It is vital that those who need legal aid can access it wherever they live in the UK.
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning duty solicitor services and the day-to-day administration of the court and police station duty schemes. This includes keeping membership records, allocating slots and producing and maintaining duty solicitor rotas. The LAA monitors membership across individual duty schemes. Information about duty solicitor volumes broken down by individual scheme is published as part of the LAA’s Official Statistics.
The LAA considers that all police station and court slots are adequately covered for each duty scheme in England and Wales, including those in rural areas. Provision under the duty schemes is demand led and so there may be variations in numbers across each local rota.
The Government has made significant investments in criminal legal aid, to reflect the valuable work done by defence lawyers. We are investing around £92 million per year in steady state in criminal legal aid solicitors’ fees. The majority of the funding (around £82 million) came into effect from 22 December 2025, with the remaining funding (around £10 million) to be implemented as soon as possible this year.
Recruitment and retention of duty solicitors remains crucial. A significant proportion of the around £92 million investment in solicitors’ fees is directed towards supporting duty solicitors in police stations and in the magistrates' courts, including in rural areas. This investment is in addition to the £24 million per year increase we implemented in November 2024 for work done in the police station and Youth Court.
Asked by: Paul Kohler (Liberal Democrat - Wimbledon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the longest waiting time was for a case to be heard in a criminal court in England and Wales once referred, as of the most recent data available.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have interpreted your question to be asking for information on the longest time a case has taken to have its first hearing at a criminal court from the point of crime referral.
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data regarding timeliness from the date of crime referral.
The Department publishes quarterly timeliness data concerning the criminal courts in the ‘End-to-end timeliness tool (Crown Court)’ and ‘Magistrates’ courts timeliness tool’, at the following link: Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2025 - GOV.UK.
These Accredited Official Statistics present the latest statistics on type and volume of cases that are received and processed through the criminal court system of England and Wales, including multiple measures of timeliness. The statistics give a summary overview of the volume of cases and defendants dealt with by these courts over time, including further breakdowns of available timeliness stages, offence groups and factors impacting case flow (plea, remand and case type).
Asked by: Paul Kohler (Liberal Democrat - Wimbledon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals relating to special educational needs and disabilities were lodged with the First-tier Tribunal in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information about appeals lodged with the First-tier Tribunal for Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to maintain the adequacy of prison education provision in the context of changes to staffing levels.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Government is committed to ensuring prisoners can access high-quality education and skills provision that supports rehabilitation and reduces reoffending.
While the national prison education budget has increased by 3% this financial year, this has not kept pace with rising delivery costs across a range of services, leading to a reduction in what can be delivered through the Core Education contracts. Core Education represents only one part of the wider education, skills and work offer available to prisoners. Prison Governors commission education that meets the needs of their population, and providers are responsible for managing the staffing required to deliver the contracted services. HMPPS works closely with providers and governors to monitor delivery and maintain adequate provision.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent comparative assessment he has made of trends in the levels of violence in (a) public and (b) private prisons.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Public and private prisons are subject to the same performance monitoring of safety outcomes. Safety data is used in contract management, including as a contractual lever to address poor performance.
We are committed to a mixed market in custodial services. Private sector companies continue to have an important role to play in the justice system, bringing innovation and expertise.
There is evidence of good performance across the privately-run prison estate, and some outstanding performance in areas such as security, respect and preparation for release. Performance varies by prison and area of assessment.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many life sentences have been handed out to people under the age of 16 in the last five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Between year ending September 2021 and year ending September 2025, 10 defendants aged under 16 have been given a life sentence. This is a further breakdown of published sentencing outcomes data released routinely as part of the Accredited Official Statistics series Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly which is available here: Criminal Justice Statistics.