Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of outstanding youth court cases in south London; and what steps he is taking to improve the efficiency of hearings.

The number of outstanding youth court cases in the South London Local Justice Area was 441 in June 2020, this figure includes the outstanding arrest warrants. The next publication of the National Statistics series ‘Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly’ will provide the quarterly information to September 2020 and will be available from 17^th December 2020: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics

Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) continually review and prioritise all youth cases. Judicial instructions for the prioritisation of cases ensure that youth cases, particularly those involving an individual who will be crossing a relevant age threshold, are a top priority.

Our £1bn reform programme involving over 50 projects to improve our court and tribunal services, is delivering new technology and modern, more efficient ways of working.