Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his planned timetable is for the expansion of the Pathfinder pilot.

The Pathfinder programme is currently operating in six Designated Family Judge areas across England and Wales. Three further court areas - the Black Country and Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire and in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire - will start the model on 11 November.

Courts in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight will start the model in January next year.

Further expansion of the model will be considered during the allocations process which follows the latest Spending Review, and we are unable to pre-empt the outcome of this.