Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Deferred
Require Government to develop multi-year funded plan to improve quality of court estate.
Recommendation
The Government should develop and deliver a comprehensive plan to improve the quality of the court estate, which is funded on a multi-year basis. The plan should identify solutions for delivering essential maintenance without reducing physical capacity. It should also set out a long-term strategy for improving the court estate so that it provides a proper and acceptable environment for all its users. The Government has shown through the use of Nightingale Courts that temporary courtrooms can be made operational if required and, if necessary, this model should be used to enable permanent buildings to undergo essential work. (Paragraph 15) Digital Capacity
Government response summary AI-generated
The government deflected the recommendation regarding a comprehensive plan for court estate quality, instead detailing funding commitments for data improvement (£3 million for next year, increasing for 2023–25) and HMCTS data infrastructure modernisation (£16 million investment from 2020/21-2022/23), including the £20 million BOLD Programme.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
We recognise that maintenance works are needed across our Estate. The recent Spending Review settlement provides multi-year funding to enable a medium-term maintenance programme to be implemented. We have a planned pipeline of future works to improve the resilience and quality of the court estate, and this is kept under regular review. Our strategy is to continue to seek further funding to improve the overall condition of the court and tribunal estate and reduce the risk of building failure. Our investment is prioritised towards courts and jurisdictions where it is needed most, by making sure that buildings are safe, secure, meet statutory requirements and protect continuity of service. Preventive maintenance is undertaken by our FM providers, to make sure that faults are quickly rectified and to provide early warning where equipment is beyond economic repair. Where improvement works or repairs cannot be undertaken without serious impact on hearings, we will consider alternative solutions, including the use of spare capacity in our core estate, the use of remote technology, and the use of temporary venues if there is a value-for-money case. Enhancing Court Capacity—Digital Capacity
Read the full response on Parliament ↗