Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Nightingale Courts are being used for criminal trials.

HMCTS has opened 27 Nightingale courts comprising 54 courtrooms. Of these courtrooms, 30 are directly hearing Crown and Magistrates’ Court work with the rest being used to free up capacity for crime hearings within the existing HMCTS estate.

Crime recovery work is moving at pace – our focus is on increasing capacity and maximising use of the capacity we already have. The Criminal Courts Recovery Plan can be accessed on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus. This provides a comprehensive update on recovery plans and includes details about Nightingale courts.