Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Progress on the courts and tribunals reform programme, published on 23 February 2023, whether he has made an assessment of the impact on his Department's policies of that report's findings of a decrease in expected lifetime savings from the reform programme from £2,313 million to £2,003 million.
Answer
Since 2016, we have been modernising our justice system to make it more straightforward, accessible, and efficient. Reformed projects are having a significant impact on those who need our justice system, as well as helping the most vulnerable in our society. There’s been widespread uptake; we have received over 2 million digitally submitted cases to our reformed services. Through handling cases digitally, we are aiming to make them easier to access for users, speed up the process, and reduce errors.
We also continue to take action to reduce the Crown Court backlog, through judicial recruitment, continued use of Nightingale Courts and working with the judiciary to explore ways to improve the efficiency of the Crown Court.