Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the level of the backlog of cases at Barnet Family Court as at 15 December 2021; and what steps he is taking to tackle that backlog.

The backlog in the family court at Barnet for private and public law case is as shown in the table below. Average timeliness in weeks has been provided also. Barnet is part of the West London Designated Family Court area. To give context the data for the whole area is also provided.

The administration and senior judiciary are working closely together to increase the sitting capacity across the West London Cluster, which comprises of West London Family Court and Barnet County Court, and to re-balance the arrears of work across the region. Sitting days in the West London area have increased by 25%, comparing the financial year September 2021 to the same period in 2020.

In recognition of the pressures on family work across the West London estate, a Nightingale Court was created at Petty France with four additional courts. Additional courts are also being utilised in the Royal Courts of Justice.

The increased use of digital hearings in family have allowed the court to use more part-time judiciary and increase the number of hearings heard on a remote basis, and the introduction of a new pilot (known as Pilot Practice Direction 36Q*) is enabling the court to progress private law cases through the system more quickly by introducing early triage and case management between issue and the first hearing.

*PD36Q New Pilot Practice Direction 36Q came into force from 23 April 2020. Pilot PD36Q modifies PD12B (Child Arrangements Programme) to provide temporary local flexibility over procedures for progressing applications for Child Arrangements Orders.