Found: Publication of the access to justice assessments Correspondence from the Chief Executive of HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: Ministry of Justice, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, and Ministry of

Found: His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) – HM Courts and Tribunals Service is responsible

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to ensure the Child Maintenance Service (a) is easier to navigate, b) reduces instances of lack of payment by one parent, (c) is faster at resolving cases and appeals and (d) reduces the total number of appeals allowed.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is taking steps to make improvements across the child maintenance system and create a modern, accessible, and robust service through our Service Modernisation Programme (SMP) and CMS reforms. Through the SMP, we have worked with suppliers who have experience of transforming organisations globally – this is ongoing, and we benefit from their insight and innovation.

The SMP has already delivered significant improvements to the customer experience through the provision of online services and Digital Assist Telephony Service, enabling parents to access their on-line My Child Maintenance Case at any time. We have restructured our telephony call routing system, made incremental improvements to customer communications, including a full review of letters, and made significant advancements to our IT systems. The wide-reaching programme aims to continue to reform and modernise CMS services with increased effectiveness and efficiency, and will continue to engage a wide range of statutory and non-statutory bodies to do this.

A principle of child maintenance is to increase levels of cooperation between separated parents and encourage parents to meet their responsibilities to provide their children with financial support. Where a family-based child maintenance arrangement is not suitable the CMS offers a statutory scheme for those parents who need it.

The Government is dedicated to ensuring parents meet their obligations to children and the CMS will do everything within its powers to make sure parents comply. Where parents fail to pay their child maintenance, the Service will not hesitate to use its enforcement powers, including deductions from earnings orders, removal of driving licences, disqualification from holding a passport, and committal to prison. The Service is committed to using these powers fairly and in the best interests of children and separated families.

The Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 proposed regulations to support the introduction of administrative liability orders (ALOs), removing the requirement to obtain a court issued liability order. Introducing this process should enable the CMS to take faster action against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities and get money to children more quickly. We are working with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and the Scottish Government to establish a process for implementing ALOs and plan to introduce regulations to Parliament by the end of this year.

Appeals fall under the jurisdiction of HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions (a) she and (b) Ministers in her Department have had with the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service on the Employment Tribunals Service since 5 July 2024.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunals. I also have regular meetings with other senior officials in the Ministry of Justice on the operation of the Employment Tribunals.

These discussions are part of ongoing engagement to ensure the efficient delivery of services across all jurisdictions.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to improve data capture on the (a) number of private law proceedings that involve allegations of child sexual abuse and (b) outcomes of these cases.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

HM Courts and Tribunals Service will be introducing a new case management system for private law children‘s cases, Manage Cases. This system will identify each type of abuse or harm allegation made by an applicant, including child sexual abuse. This will support data capture of the number of proceedings in which child sexual abuse is a factor and the outcome of these cases. The national roll out of the new digital system is expected to begin later this year.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) judges and (b) other people were employed in the Employment Tribunal by HM Courts and Tribunals Service in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those roles were vacant in that time period.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The number of judges and members of tribunals is published annually in the ‘Diversity of the Judiciary’ statistics. Headcount figures can be found at the tabs named “3_2_JO_Area”.

• 2020: diversity-of-the-judiciary-2020-data-tables.ods

• 2021: diversity-of-the-judiciary-2021-data-tables.ods

• 2022: Judicial_diversity_2022_Tables.ods

• 2023: 2023_JDS_tables.ods

• 2024: JDS_2024_tables_-_FINAL_v3.ods

We are maintaining investment in the annual recruitment of about 1,000 judges and non-legal tribunal members across all jurisdictions. Annual recruitment requirements for judicial and non-legal tribunal members are determined by business need and judicial departures.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service has recorded Employment Tribunal staff (including legal caseworker) headcount in December each year as follows between 2020 and 2024:

Staff vacancies in the Employment Tribunal over this period are not held centrally. Recruitment requirements for HMCTS staff and legal officers in the Employment Tribunal is determined in response to business need and staff departures.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will hold discussions with HM Courts and Tribunals Service on the potential merits of ensuring that domestic abuse victims attending Liverpool Family Court can use a different entrance to the building to that of their alleged perpetrator.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

It is important that the Family Court works for children and families. That is why the Government is committed to ensuring there are adequate protections in place for users and that we improve the timeliness of cases.

I am aware that, due to the building’s architecture, layout and shared use there are issues in arranging separate entrances at Liverpool Family Court. To mitigate this, it is possible to arrange staggered arrival times, secure waiting rooms and separate exits. Special measures can be requested by contacting the court as soon as possible, ideally 5 days before the hearing. Liverpool Family Court's contact details can be found at: Liverpool Civil and Family Court - Find a Court or Tribunal - GOV.UK.

We recognise the significant impact that delay can have on children and families. We are committed to tackling backlog of cases we inherited from the previous Government and the latest published data shows progress is being made. When comparing October to December 2024 to the same period in 2023, under the previous Government, the average duration of private law cases has fallen from 45 to 42 weeks and care proceedings over the same period have fallen from 42 weeks to 36. We know that there is more to do and the Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide targets for 2025/26 and these are focused on increasing the proportion of public law cases concluded within the statutory 26-week timeframe and closing the longest running cases in both private and public law. To support this, Cheshire and Merseyside is a designated Trailblazer area, developing and testing targeted solutions to address the biggest local drivers of delays.

Our new Pathfinder courts are improving the experience and outcomes for children and parents involved in private law proceedings, and particularly those who may need additional support such as domestic abuse survivors. The pilot courts work closely with local domestic abuse agencies, including Independent Domestic Violence Advisers. The Pathfinder pilot started in February 2022 in Dorset and North Wales. It was expanded to Southeast Wales and Birmingham in 2024 and Mid and West Wales on 3 March 2025. Pathfinder will be rolled out to West Yorkshire on 3 June. Areas delivering the Pathfinder model for private family law are making significant progress in addressing delay, with the initial two pilot sites showing an 11-week reduction in average case duration and a 50% reduction in outstanding caseloads between February 2022 and November 2024.

Alongside improving how cases move through the system we need to properly support those involved. Victims of domestic abuse must receive emotional and practical support to recover and rebuild their lives. The Ministry of Justice provide Police and Crime Commissioners with annual grant funding to commission local support services. This includes ring-fenced funding for sexual violence and domestic abuse community-based services and Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisors. Alongside this the Home Office runs the Flexible Fund, administered by Women’s Aid, which offers financial support to victims in specific circumstances.

Found: In March 2022 HM Courts and Tribunals Service and the Probation Service received approval to target

Found: In March 2022 HM Courts and Tribunals Service and the Probation Service received approval to target

Found: 493 0.72 0.72 Q2 20 Days 434 0.68 0.68 Q3 20 Days 263 0.7 0.7 Q4 20 Days 464 0.75 0.75 HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: 20 Days 434 68% 68% Q3 20 Days 263 70% 70% Q4 20 Days 464 75% 75% HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: General Register Office and divorce data (including civil partnerships) provided by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: General Register Office and divorce data (including civil partnerships) provided by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) – HM Courts and Tribunals Service is responsible

Found: His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) – HM Courts and Tribunals Service is responsible

Found: will be able to appeal the decision through the First -tier Tribunal, administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: including any advocate instructed by a legal aid solicitor; Public authorities such as: HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: In England, Scotland or Wales, you can appeal direct to the HM Courts and Tribunals Service without

Found: His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) – HM Courts and Tribunals Service is responsible

Found: His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) – HM Courts and Tribunals Service is responsible

Found: VariesEngland, Scotland and Wales Help paying court and tribunal fees13 14 HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: HMCTS HM Courts and Tribunals Service IDVA Independent Domestic Violence Adviser Legacy (cases) Child

Found: change in Court or Tribunals process or an increase / decrease in applications / cases to HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: change in Court or Tribunals process or an increase / decrease in applications / cases to HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: General said: “The Welsh Government has followed the agreed procedures to make the HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: The Welsh Government has followed the agreed procedures to make the HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Found: UK Government (Ministry of Justice/HM Courts and Tribunals Service) 7.333 The proposed amendment is

Found: UK Government (Ministry of Justice/HM Courts and Tribunals Service) 7.280 The proposed amendment is

Found: therefore anticipated that any increase in the volume of applications / cases to the HM Courts and Tribunals Service