Courts and Tribunals: Sitting Day Allocations

David Lammy Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2026 Written Statements

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr David Lammy)]

It has come to our attention that data tables were missing from HCWS1357, on the concordat made on 24 February, and these can now be found below:

Each year, the Government and the senior judiciary work to agree the sitting day allocations and overall funding envelope for His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service. This joint approach ensures transparency, supports long-term planning, and enables the system to operate within a realistic and sustainable framework.

Following extensive engagement with the Lady Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals, the Judicial Office, I can confirm that we have reached a landmark settlement for 2026-27. This settlement ensures that courts and tribunals are equipped to operate at, or close to, maximum capacity.

For 2026-27, the Ministry of Justice will provide £2,785 million of total funding—£2,498 million fiscal resource and £287 million in fiscal capital funding. This represents a record investment in our courts and tribunals.

I will continue to increase the allocation in coming years. This settlement provides an unprecedented ability to plan for the long term. While this agreement formally governs the 2026-27 financial year, I have established firm funding commitments through to 2028-29 across all jurisdictions. By providing this three-year horizon, I am enabling HMCTS to plan more effectively, recruit with confidence, and begin to address outstanding caseloads with the stability that only multi-year certainty can provide.

The Crown court backlog continues to rise and stands at over 79,000 cases. My focus, as I have said to the House, is on victims who are being left to wait three, four or five years for their day in court. Central to this allocation, then, is the uncapping of the sitting day allocation for the Crown court for the next financial year, removing any financial constraint on the rate at which HMCTS operates. This will allow the Crown court to sit at record-high levels, hearing as many cases as possible, getting swifter justice for victims and tackling the Crown court backlog. Combined with our court reform plans, this investment will help turn the tide on the open caseload, enabling the system to move to a more sustainable footing over the period.

Beyond the uncapped capacity provided for the Crown court, this settlement delivers significant resources across all other jurisdictions. For magistrates courts, I am funding an allocation of 125,800 sitting days for the next financial year, up from 114,000 in the current financial year, and I am funding increases each year thereafter, with a target of 131,000 days in the final year. I have also set money aside for additional sitting days up to 140,000 in the final year of this spending review period if the system is able to deliver this.

The allocation also includes 80,200 days for civil justice and high allocations for the tribunals, including the funding to deliver up to a high ambition of 26,000 sitting days for the immigration and asylum chamber.

Additionally for family courts, I am funding 96,100 days in the next financial year, alongside funding an expansion of pathfinder courts in 26-27, which will greatly improve the court experience and outcomes for children and parents involved in private family cases, including those who have experience of domestic abuse.

To support this sitting day allocation, I am increasing capital funding by 46% compared to the previous financial year, to £287 million. This investment includes a boost to courts maintenance and will halt the long-term decline of the courts estate that we have seen in the last decade and a half. This investment will also underpin the system’s maximum operational capacity by supporting major estates projects and digital modernisation.

As was done for the first time last year, I am today publishing the total sitting day allocations per jurisdiction, and the firm commitments I am making on allocations for future years. The agreed sitting day allocations across the spending review period are set out below:

Table 1—Sitting day allocations for the complete spending review period

Funding at this level is expected to amount to the sitting-day volumes set out below.