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Select committee: Justice Committee

First Special Report - Court capacity: Government Response to the Committee’s Sixth Report of Session 2021–22

Published 7 July 2022

Justice Committee Court Capacity Report on parliament.uk ↗

At a glance

The government's response

This document responds to Sixth report - Court capacity.

This is the government's response, published 7 July 2022.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government welcomes the Committee's report and says the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS "will continue to work alongside the judiciary" to keep courts at full capacity and reduce the outstanding caseload.

  • On a Courts' Inspectorate, the government does not re-establish one, saying this "would require significant long-term resourcing which we are not currently set up to deliver". It has "committed to further considering" a Coroner Service Inspectorate.
  • On Crown Court recovery, it states it is providing an extra £477 million over three years, aiming to reduce the backlog to "an estimated 53,000 cases by March 2025". It describes its plan as "ambitious" and says future years are "subject to Spending Reviews".
  • It commits to providing a comprehensive evaluation of the Nightingale court programme "by the end of the 2022/23 financial year", and aims to publish a section 28 process evaluation "in the autumn".
  • On a Royal Commission, it recognises the opportunity but is "now taking the time to consider where a Royal Commission will add the most value". It states the HMCTS reform programme "is on track to complete by December 2023 as planned".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

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