Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of expected cost savings from measures undertaken by his Department to tackle the backlog in the Crown Courts.

The reforms of the Crown Court are aimed at reducing delays and modernising our criminal courts. They are not designed with the aim of costs savings. In that context, the estimated costs and benefits of the measures proposed in the Courts and Tribunals Bill are set out in the published Courts and Tribunals Bill (Structural Criminal Court Reform) Impact Assessment.

The monetised benefits of these measures will primarily come from efficiency gains across courts services. Although the measures will free up capacity in the Crown Court, these time savings will not necessarily result in direct budgetary savings - time will instead be used to hear more cases and reduce the open caseload.