Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the additional criminal court capacity created by reducing the number of jurors from 12 to seven due to the social distancing guidance of one metre plus in those courts.

There are currently no plans to legislate to reduce the statutory minimum number of jurors. Were the Ministry to propose any legislation we would provide full details of any sunset clause.

HMCTS has published a Court Recovery Plan which summarises the measures that are being taken. 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 Jury trials have safely resumed in most Crown Courts and we have announced a number of Nightingale Courts which will further support recovery.