Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the closure of magistrates' courts on the court backlog.

The decision to close any court is not taken lightly. It only happens following full public consultation and only where sufficient capacity exists in other nearby courts to accommodate the work of the closing courts. Courts that have closed were either underused, dilapidated or too close to one another.

The magistrates’ courts have made excellent progress in responding to the pandemic. The measures that we have put in place as part of our 5-Point Plan have already produced results, with the outstanding caseload having fallen from c.436,000 in June 2020 to c.364,000 in September 2021 - a reduction of 17%. Where additional accommodation has been required in order to assist recovery, we have utilised Nightingale Courts – four temporary Nightingale magistrates’ courtrooms were opened during the pandemic.

The settlement in the recent Spending Review, which includes 477m for the criminal justice system, will help it to meet the increased demand from the additional police officers and to recover performance following the pandemic. Analysis suggests this new investment could both improve waiting times and significantly reduce the number of outstanding cases by the end of the spending review period, ensuring that we do right by victims of crime.