Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2020 to Question 123733 on HM Courts & Tribunals Service: Finance, how much and what proportion of the £3.364 million of additional covid-19-related funding for tribunals he plans spend on (a) immigration tribunals, (b) social security tribunals, (c) employment tribunals and (d) other tribunals.

In the answer to question 123733 we set out the proportion of the additional Covid-related funding announced in September 2020 which could be directly attributed to each of the major jurisdictions as well as spend which benefits multiple jurisdictions. The majority of Covid recovery spend is for costs such as additional cleaning of the court estate, the provision of additional safety and security works, the provision of technology to enable remote hearings which have been critical to Tribunals this year, and the provision of some additional court rooms (often referred to as ‘Nightingale Courts’). Much of this spend will be of direct benefit to Tribunals but cannot be directly attributed to it. Very little of the spend is directly attributable to a single tribunal, and so I am unable to provide a further breakdown.

We are also investing record amounts which will also improve our resilience going forward, including £153m investment in 20/21 to improve court and tribunal buildings – the biggest single investment in court estate maintenance for more than 20 years.