Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans the Government has to tackle the backlog of trials as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

COVID-19 has been an unprecedented challenge for the criminal justice system, but we have kept courts open and cases flowing through the system throughout. The UK has been a global leader and we are ahead of comparable systems.

The most time-critical hearings have continued to take place in the Magistrates’ Courts, including hearings where the defendant is in custody or there is a risk to the public, as well as dealing with applications to extend custody time limits. In Crown Courts, jury trials were restarted on the 18 May and I am pleased to say that we will have reopened all courts by mid-July.

HMCTS has now published a Court Recovery Plan, which sets out that court operating hours will be extended, alternative venues will be used as courts to increase capacity and the use of the Cloud Video Platform (CVP) will be rolled out into all Magistrates’ and Crown Courts. Further measures to increase jury trial capacity are also being explored. The Court Recovery Plan can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus