Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of suspending the issue of county court judgments to small businesses during the covid-19 outbreak to help ensure that those businesses are able to receive and respond efficiently to those judgments.

The Government is taking a number of measures to support businesses, landlords and other parties during the coronavirus pandemic. The Coronavirus Act 2020 implemented a moratorium on the forfeiture of commercial leases for unpaid rent until 30 June 2020 (with the option to extend through secondary legislation).

MoJ has also worked with BEIS and MHCLG to restrict the use of commercial rent arrears recovery (CRAR) while the moratorium is in place, and on Thursday 23 April BEIS announced that they will be introducing further measures to protect businesses against aggressive debt recovery actions, including statutory demands and winding up petitions.

The Ministry of Justice has not made an assessment of the merits of suspending county court judgments to small businesses during the Covid-19 outbreak but we continue to keep the situation under review.

More generally, as a further measure to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. the Lord Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls have agreed a Practice Direction to allow parties to extend time limits in most civil cases by up to 56 days without formally notifying the court (rather than the current 28 days).