Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases were adjourned due to lack of judicial availability in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on trials that are ineffective due to a judge or magistrate not being available.
An ineffective trial does not go ahead on the scheduled trial date, and a further listing is required.
This information can be found on a quarterly basis using the ‘Trial effectiveness at the criminal courts tool’ and filtering the reason to ‘23. Ineffective reason: Judge/magistrate availability’ at the link below: Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the outstanding caseload is in the Crown Court, broken down by offence category and region.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the Crown Court open caseload on a quarterly basis in the Criminal Court Statistics publication. The latest available data covers the period up to September 2025 and this can be broken down by offence category and region using the Crown Court receipts, disposals and open cases tool.
Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of measures to improve the timeliness of probate claims.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HM Courts & Tribunals Service have invested in more staff, alongside system and process improvements to reduce and maintain lower processing times during the last year.
The Ministry of Justice publishes regular data on probate timeliness in our regular quarterly family court statistics bulletin: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been released in error since 5 July 2024 by prison.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Releases in error have been increasing for several years and are another symptom of the prison system crisis inherited by this Government. On 11 November, the Deputy Prime Minister announced a five-point action plan setting out initial steps to address this issue.
Totals for releases in error, including a breakdown by releasing prison (or Prisoner Escort Custody Services), are published each July in the HMPPS Annual Digest, available via HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2024 to March 2025 - GOV.UK , and provide data up to March 2025.
The Government is determined to fix the issue of mistaken releases and ensure the public is properly protected.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to publish the impact assessment for the removal of the right of defendants to elect for a jury trial.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
An impact assessment will accompany our legislative measures, as is usual practice.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to introduce a remuneration and conditions framework for court interpreters ahead of the October 2026 target date to support the sustainability of the systems.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on Friday 5 September to Question 73395: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-08-29/73395.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of existing remuneration rates and contractual terms in attracting and retaining Level 6 qualified interpreters to undertake work in the courts.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on Monday 8 September to Question 73394: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-08-29/73394.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to to the Independent Technical Review of Qualifications and Experience Requirements for the Provision of Spoken Language Interpreting, published on 17 March 2025, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that there will be a sufficient number of Level 6 qualified interpreters available to meet the October 2026 target for court interpreting services.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on Tuesday 9 September to Question 74494: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-09-02/74494.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many open family cases there were in each Designated Family Judge area as of 23 July 2025, broken down by (a) public law and (b) private law; and what proportion of those cases involved litigants in person.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is provided in the data tables below up until 31 March 2025, aligning with the time period published in the Ministry of Justice’s official statistics. All data is taken from HMCTS administrative systems.
Caseload data by Designated Family Judge area:
| Count of the Public Law Open Caseload as at the 31 March 2025 broken down to reflect whether parties to proceedings have legal representation |
| |||
Designated Family Judge Area | Both Applicant and Respondent | Applicant only | Respondent only | Neither Applicant nor Respondent | Total |
Birmingham | 190 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 202 |
Blackburn/Lancaster | 304 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 325 |
Bournemouth and Dorset | 76 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 78 |
Brighton | 205 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 215 |
Bristol (A, NS and G) | 232 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 239 |
Business Centres | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Carlisle | 98 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 107 |
Central London | 529 | 20 | 1 | 2 | 552 |
Cleveland and South Durham | 259 | 24 | 0 | 3 | 286 |
Coventry | 100 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 107 |
Derby | 158 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 162 |
Devon | 246 | 20 | 0 | 1 | 267 |
East London | 535 | 18 | 0 | 1 | 554 |
Essex and Suffolk | 319 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 332 |
Humberside | 220 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 232 |
Leicester | 124 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 127 |
Lincoln | 96 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 101 |
Liverpool | 493 | 52 | 1 | 6 | 552 |
Luton | 119 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 126 |
Manchester | 721 | 37 | 0 | 3 | 761 |
Medway and Canterbury | 342 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 349 |
Milton Keynes | 140 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 144 |
North Wales | 99 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 108 |
North Yorkshire | 94 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 101 |
Northampton | 98 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 101 |
Northumbria and North Durham | 397 | 26 | 0 | 8 | 431 |
Norwich | 100 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 103 |
Nottingham | 131 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 138 |
Peterborough and Cambridge | 139 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 142 |
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW) | 194 | 21 | 0 | 2 | 217 |
Reading | 239 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 248 |
Royal Courts of Justice | 44 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 |
South East Wales | 216 | 25 | 0 | 3 | 244 |
South Yorkshire | 273 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 286 |
Stoke on Trent | 162 | 19 | 0 | 2 | 183 |
Surrey | 89 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 94 |
Swansea | 100 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 113 |
Swindon | 63 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 65 |
Taunton | 99 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 104 |
Truro | 66 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 70 |
Watford | 85 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 91 |
West London | 385 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 400 |
West Yorkshire | 342 | 29 | 0 | 3 | 374 |
Wolverhampton | 283 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 299 |
Worcester | 76 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 85 |
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England and Wales | 9,280 | 526 | 3 | 51 | 9,860 |
| Count of the Private Law Open Caseload as at the 31 March 2025 broken down to reflect whether parties to proceedings have legal representation |
| |||
Designated Family Judge Area | Both Applicant and Respondent | Applicant only | Respondent only | Neither Applicant nor Respondent | Total |
Birmingham | 106 | 139 | 113 | 232 | 590 |
Blackburn/Lancaster | 148 | 208 | 132 | 388 | 876 |
Bournemouth and Dorset | 42 | 52 | 49 | 114 | 257 |
Brighton | 128 | 244 | 179 | 734 | 1285 |
Bristol (A, NS and G) | 223 | 205 | 158 | 458 | 1044 |
Business Centres | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 8 |
Carlisle | 46 | 58 | 39 | 106 | 249 |
Central London | 328 | 446 | 338 | 985 | 2097 |
Cleveland and South Durham | 113 | 92 | 90 | 154 | 449 |
Coventry | 81 | 90 | 82 | 164 | 417 |
Derby | 107 | 88 | 98 | 194 | 487 |
Devon | 171 | 185 | 170 | 310 | 836 |
East London | 346 | 484 | 416 | 881 | 2127 |
Essex and Suffolk | 305 | 394 | 320 | 894 | 1913 |
Humberside | 72 | 115 | 89 | 232 | 508 |
Leicester | 111 | 134 | 114 | 273 | 632 |
Lincoln | 69 | 69 | 51 | 112 | 301 |
Liverpool | 271 | 300 | 276 | 608 | 1455 |
Luton | 83 | 123 | 114 | 318 | 638 |
Manchester | 407 | 548 | 421 | 1094 | 2470 |
Medway and Canterbury | 197 | 292 | 260 | 788 | 1537 |
Milton Keynes | 48 | 72 | 73 | 169 | 362 |
North Wales | 58 | 46 | 42 | 55 | 201 |
North Yorkshire | 79 | 79 | 64 | 106 | 328 |
Northampton | 42 | 53 | 58 | 206 | 359 |
Northumbria and North Durham | 229 | 209 | 159 | 293 | 890 |
Norwich | 90 | 104 | 99 | 225 | 518 |
Nottingham | 135 | 189 | 140 | 269 | 733 |
Peterborough and Cambridge | 119 | 145 | 100 | 357 | 721 |
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW) | 177 | 269 | 208 | 781 | 1435 |
Reading | 169 | 262 | 206 | 473 | 1110 |
Royal Courts of Justice | 90 | 428 | 32 | 281 | 831 |
South East Wales | 83 | 104 | 71 | 179 | 437 |
South Yorkshire | 115 | 140 | 112 | 203 | 570 |
Stoke on Trent | 89 | 101 | 81 | 204 | 475 |
Surrey | 144 | 160 | 125 | 395 | 824 |
Swansea | 139 | 126 | 65 | 94 | 424 |
Swindon | 41 | 60 | 44 | 196 | 341 |
Taunton | 73 | 64 | 67 | 144 | 348 |
Truro | 85 | 66 | 58 | 170 | 379 |
Watford | 117 | 162 | 151 | 386 | 816 |
West London | 415 | 494 | 405 | 953 | 2267 |
West Yorkshire | 225 | 280 | 173 | 409 | 1087 |
Wolverhampton | 226 | 243 | 167 | 405 | 1041 |
Worcester | 78 | 79 | 70 | 130 | 357 |
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England and Wales | 6,420 | 8,202 | 6,279 | 16,129 | 37,030 |
Notes:
The HMCTS data provided above is in line with latest MoJ statistics.
Self-representation is determined by the field 'legal representation' in Familyman being left blank. Therefore, this is only a proxy measure and parties without a recorded representative are not necessarily self-representing litigants in person.
A party is considered 'applicant-represented' if at least one applicant has a recorded representative, and likewise for respondents.
The majority of Public law applicants are public bodies with access to their own legal resources - however, this legal representation is often not recorded. To address this we introduced a methodology which assumes that all public body applicants have legal representation.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the proportion of Single Justice Procedure cases where the defendant did not respond to the notice and was convicted in absence.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of defendants who failed to respond to a Single Justice Procedure (SJP) notice and were therefore convicted in absence. Information and statistics on plea response for SJP cases is published here: Statistics in development – Single Justice Procedures – GOV.UK.
Defendant engagement is a key part of delivering fair justice. The Ministry of Justice continues to consider ways to support and encourage participation in the SJP process which is why we recently consulted on how the process can be improved. We will set out our plans shortly.