Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Deferred
Publish a detailed breakdown of £220 million capital funding spent on court repairs and maintenance.
Recommendation
We recommend that the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS publish a detailed breakdown of how the £220 million in capital funding was spent between March 2023 and March 2025. The breakdown should include further information as to the type of maintenance and repairs completed, and at which courts they were completed, to aid transparency in Government spending. This detailed breakdown must be published by the end of March
Government Response Summary
The government's response discussed a pilot for mandatory small claims mediation and its future evaluation, completely unrelated to the recommendation on capital funding for court maintenance.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
Practice Direction 51ZE of the Civil Procedure Rules establishes a pilot which mandates that the majority of small monetary claims under the value to £10,000 be automatically referred to HMCTS’ Small Claims Mediation Service. The pilot runs until May 2026. There will be an evaluation and a review of the Practice Direction by the Ministry of Justice and the Civil Procedure Rule Committee. The Ministry of Justice, working with HMCTS, will use the lessons from the review to inform decisions on extension of the pilot, and any further expansion of mandatory mediation to other claim types.