Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2021 to Question 67051, what progress he has made in reducing the delays at Westferry Family Court; and if he will make a statement.

Work continues to be undertaken on the redistribution of work to help support East London Family Court. Capacity across the estate is being fully utilised and Financial Remedy and Public Law cases continue to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice and the Nightingale Court at Petty France. Pilot Practice Directorate 36Q has also been implemented at East London Family Court (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).

As a result of the continuing exceptionally high receipts of Private Law work at East London Family Court, along with the continuing pressures on judicial recruitment and Cafcass resource, it has been agreed with the Senior Judiciary that some of this work will initially be heard at Central and West London Family Courts with a longer plan of transferring some of the East London postcodes to these courts to balance the waiting times across the region.

The impact of the rebalancing exercise is unlikely to show for several months due to the nature of how cases are listed. However, despite continuing pressures, outstanding cases remain fairly static with 2299 at the end of October and 2251 at the end of December.

OPT Report - FamilyMan Private Law Workload and Performance (BY CASE)