Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases are in the backlog of the York Criminal Court; and what assessment he has made of trends in the level of the case backlog at that court since 2015.

Outstanding cases in York have been on a downward trend since 2015 until 2019. The downward trend during this period reflects a reduction in receipts along with additional sitting days for York work which have been sat in Leeds.

York Crown Court is a listed building that houses two Crown Courtrooms. York Crown Court was a suspended court site due to Covid-19 from 27 March and reopened on 22 June, however during this time remote hearings did continue to take place. Despite the restrictions resulting from it being a listed building, since reopening, York has recommenced much of its business, including face to face hearings, pre-trial preparation hearings and sentencing, and on the 20 July jury trials were recommenced in one of the courtrooms. Adaptations are being put in place to allow the second courtroom to be used for jury trials.

The volume of outstanding cases at the Crown Court in England and Wales is published by case type as part of the National Statistics bulletin Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly, see Table C1. The latest published data is available to March 2020 and the next release to June 2020 is planned for release on the 24 September 2020.