Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made on the effect on (a) public safety, (b) victim welfare and (c) witness safety of the unavailability of court dates.

We take the delays caused by Covid-19 in the courts extremely seriously. We are aware of the impact of delayed justice and we are doing everything in our power to address this, while taking the measures needed to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and protect those involved in the justice system.

We acknowledge the impact that delays have on victims and witnesses. We have established strong partnerships working with the Home Office, Police, APCC, CPS and HMCTS to ensure we are supporting the needs of victims and witnesses. We are providing an additional £25m in 2021/22 for victims and support services. This recognises the negative impact that Covid-19 has had on vulnerable victims of crime and builds on the £20 million we provided in 2020/21 to help domestic abuse and sexual violence community-based services meet Covid-driven demand.

Section 28 for vulnerable victims and witnesses in Crown Courts was also rolled out to all court sites on 23 November. It provides the option to pre-record evidence in advance of a trial for vulnerable complainants of a crime, as well as witnesses, including children. This is helping support these individuals to give evidence in court closer to the time of the offence.