Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department holds data on the outstanding caseload in the County Court in England and Wales.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

No data is held regarding outstanding caseloads in the County Court in England and Wales. Civil cases do not progress through the court system in a linear way. The vast majority of civil cases settle, are resolved by default judgment, or conclude outside of a final court hearing. Only about 3% of cases are disposed of at a final hearing. Given this, and the fact that civil claims are often driven by party behaviour, an outstanding caseload figure would not provide a fair or meaningful reflection of County Court demand or performance.

I can confirm County Court performance is improving, with the median time taken from claim issue to hearing falling for all tracks. The median time taken for small claims to go to trial was 36.1 weeks in October to December 2025, 6.4 weeks faster than the same period in 2024. The median time taken for fast/intermediate/multi track claims to go to trial was 9.3 weeks faster than the same period last year, at 57.4 weeks in the current quarter.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department collects data on document handling errors or lost filings in County Court civil cases.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is not held centrally. The terms “document handling errors” and “lost filings” are broad and may encompass a wide range of issues, making it difficult to provide a specific or reliable answer. HMCTS is reducing the risk of administrative errors in civil claims through work to digitalise processes.

The Deputy Prime Minister has announced further modernisation of civil justice with £50 million investment to continue digitalising the County Court.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made recent assessment concerning NHS contracts awarded to Palantir.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Privacy by design is a core principle of the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP). NHS England constantly assesses privacy and data management through strict information governance processes detailed in the NHS Federated Data Platform Information Governance Framework. Data in the NHS FDP remains under National Health Service control at all times.

Palantir does not control the data in the platform, nor are they permitted to access, use, or share it for their own purposes.

The contract has strict stipulations about confidentiality, and there is governance in place to monitor delivery and usage. NHS England is the data controller of the national instance of the NHS FDP. Every hospital trust and integrated care board who has their own instance of the NHS FDP has complete control over who has access to their data platform.

NHS England maintains continuous monitoring of the NHS FDP contract, to ensure it meets expectations. The NHS FDP is a major national digital infrastructure programme and is formally part of the Government’s Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP). The NHS FDP programme is subject to the scrutiny, assurance, and value for money standards required of all GMPP programmes. NHS FDP’s whole life costs and benefits are assessed through the annual GMPP process.

The NHS FDP is subject to scrutiny by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) as part of the major projects review. NISTA’s latest data, published on 11 August 2025, sets out the projected benefits of NHS FDP at £777 million. The data records the Senior Responsible Owner Delivery Confidence rating as Green, the highest rating. The report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nista-annual-report-2024-2025

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