Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase the capacity of the courts.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The outstanding Crown Court caseload has been falling since October. We have invested a significant amount of funding for the Criminal Justice System to help improve waiting times for victims of crime and reduce the outstanding Crown Court caseload.
We are recruiting up to 1,000 judges across all jurisdictions in 2023/24, last year removed the limit on sitting days in the Crown Court for the second financial year in a row, and recently announced the continued use of 24 Nightingale courtrooms into the 2023/24 financial year.
We have also significantly increased funding to improve waiting times in the civil and family courts and tribunals. This includes increasing funding to Cafcass by £8.4 million last financial year to deal with more open active cases.
To help maximise our available judicial capacity, we also introduced a virtual region pilot scheme in July to support civil and family courts in London and the South East. This allows deputy district judges from outside these regions to sit virtually in London and the South East so we can hear as many cases as possible.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
What steps his Department has taken to ensure that courts can continue to operate effectively during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Justice system has operated throughout the pandemic.
o Jury trials, the part of the system we did have to suspend, restarted in May
o By Monday 14 September 2020, jury trials will have resumed in 72 Crown Courts
Our buildings are ‘Covid secure’ and social distancing measures are in place
o By rolling out plexiglass and other measures, we are on track to open 250 Crown courtrooms by the end of October.
o 110 jury trial rooms are currently in use.
We have swiftly expanded our use of technology so that we can hold more video and audio hearings across all jurisdictions, subject to judicial discretion.
We are rolling out Nightingale Courts across the country, undertaking Saturday sittings, and piloting Covid operating hours in further efforts to support access to justice.
The progress made to introduce online access to services through reform has made a substantial difference in maintaining the operation of the courts and tribunals, enabling more work to continue where reform is more advanced, and underlining the wider value of reform in supporting a more resilient and adaptable service.
Those services which have already been reformed, notably divorce, probate, SSCS, IAC, and jurisdictions using CE-File have proved more resilient to the impact of the pandemic and still been able to process thousands of applications.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of adopting a trauma-informed approach within the probation service.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) understands that experiences of violence, abuse and trauma are common in the lives of offenders and that this can impact on reoffending and rehabilitation. Recognising there is a greater prevalence of trauma amongst women, staff working with female offenders across Prison and Probation services have adopted trauma-informed approaches following the rollout of briefing materials and toolkits, and consideration will be given to wider rollout following the evaluation of such approaches.