Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Statement in the House on 11 November 2025, how many personnel from his Department will form the urgent warrant query unit.

The Urgent Warrant Query Unit (UWQU) will be formed out of an existing national service centre which currently answers all calls to the Magistrates’ Courts in England and Wales. Its function will be to provide a reliable and accountable route of escalation for urgent queries to HMCTS from Prisons, covering both Crown and Magistrates' Courts.

We anticipate the unit will be initially staffed with 8 members of existing staff daily based on an assessment of likely contact volumes. Staff allocated to the unit will be given additional training and flexibly deployed to the Query Unit to ensure all calls and emails to the Unit from Prisons are answered and then dealt with swiftly.