Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the backlog of court cases.

The Government is committed to supporting the recovery of the courts and our decisive action kept justice moving during the pandemic. Now that barristers have returned to work, we can work together to drive down the backlog and ensure victims see justice served sooner.

To increase capacity in the Criminal Justice System, we have removed the limit on sitting days in the Crown Court for the second year in a row and extended 30 Nightingale courtrooms beyond the end of March 2022. Over the next three financial years, we are investing an extra £477 million for the Criminal Justice System to help improve waiting times for victims of crime and address the Crown Court backlog.

Over the next three financial years we are also investing £324 million to further improve waiting times in the civil and family courts, and tribunals. In July 2022, we introduced a Virtual Region pilot scheme to support civil and family courts in London and the South East. In March 2021 we launched the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme to encourage people to resolve their disputes outside of court where safe and appropriate to do so.

Across all jurisdictions, we are recruiting more judges to enable us to sit at the maximum possible level over the coming years.