Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has commissioned any research into changes to journey times to courts for (a) witnesses, (b) victims of crime and (c) court staff in areas where courts have closed as a result of the Estate Rationalisation Programme.

The decision to close a court is never taken lightly. In the case of each court closure, we undertook a public consultation exercise and considered the responses we received very carefully. The Lord Chancellor has only agreed to close courts when satisfied that effective access to justice would be maintained.

Research and analysis of changes to journey times for those who attend court is conducted and published as part of the consultation process. The analysis is further reviewed based on responses to the consultation and is carefully considered by the Lord Chancellor before final decisions are made regarding the future of a court.