HM Courts and Tribunals Service

(asked on 13th May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference paragraph 7.20 of HM Courts & Tribunals Service response to the consultation paper entitled Fit for the future: transforming the Court and Tribunal Estate, what steps he is taking to determine appropriate capacity utilisation of the HM Courts & Tribunals estate; and what the date is for the completion of that analysis.


Answered by
Paul Maynard Portrait
Paul Maynard
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 21st May 2019

HM Courts & Tribunals Service is currently investigating how to appropriately evaluate optimum utilisation rates for courts and tribunals, looking at past data on utilisation and performance. We anticipate that this analytical work will be completed prior to the publication of any further proposals regarding the court or tribunal estate.

Maintaining effective access to justice will be the top priority when making decisions about the future of courts and tribunals buildings.

The closure of any court is not taken lightly and, where a service is moved outside the local area, will only follow a full public consultation. To date, courts that have closed have been dilapidated, too close to another or underused. All money raised from the sale of buildings since 2016 has been reinvested back into the justice system.

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