Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to help reduce the backlog in (a) crown and (b) family courts.

This Government inherited a record and rising courts backlog. We have funded a record-high allocation of 110,000 Crown Court sitting days this financial year to deliver swifter justice for victims, 4,000 more than in 2024/25 under the previous Government. However, the scale of the challenge is beyond what increasing sitting days can achieve. We are carefully considering the recommendations from Sir Brian Leveson’s review of efficiency to reduce crown court backlogs in a once-in-a-generation reform to deliver swifter justice for victims.

In family courts, good progress is being made to reduce backlogs. In public law they have reduced from 10,533 to 10,282 from May 2024 to May 2025, and in private law from 40,628 to 37,225 from May 2024 to May 2025. Areas delivering the Pathfinder model in private law have made significant progress addressing delays.

The Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide targets for 2025/26, focussed on further reducing delay and outstanding caseloads, and supporting areas with higher backlogs such as London. The Family Justice Strategy for London includes additional investment over 2025/26 to tackle the outstanding private law caseload by providing additional capacity and a judicial-led initiative to reduce delays.