Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) mean and (b) median time was from offence to completion for cases of robbery in each crown court in England and Wales in the past three years.

Timeliness estimates from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court for robbery offences can be found in the attached tables by Crown Court.

Estimates of timeliness from offence to completion are taken from the point of offence committal through to the eventual completion of a case at court.

Caution should be taken when drawing conclusions from granular breakdowns – for example in the case of courts such as Salisbury and Newport (Isle of Wight) – as there is potential for marked variations based on small volumes and even single cases.

The Government is committed to supporting the recovery of the courts and we continue to take action to tackle the impact the pandemic has had on the system. We have extended 30 Nightingale courtrooms beyond the end of March 2022 and have again removed the limit on the number of days the Crown Court can sit this financial year. To secure enough capacity to sit at the required levels in 2022/23 and beyond we are expanding our plans for judicial recruitment.