Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, by what date the backlog of cases before the courts as a result of the covid-19 outbreak is planned to be cleared.

We have responded quickly and in an innovative manner to the challenge posed by the Covid-19 pandemic to our criminal courts and the wider justice system. The date by which the courts recover to pre-pandemic levels of activity is sensitive to a range of influences and so is difficult to predict precisely. Those influences include when social distancing ends, and the number, nature and complexity of the cases flowing into the court system.

Further detail is published in the HMCTS recovery plan.