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Question follow-through · 100312

Crown Court

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Crown Court courtrooms are not sitting on average in each month, and what steps he is taking to address the issue of Crown Courts not sitting.

answeredMinistry of Justice

About this written question

A written question asks a government minister for information in writing. Parliament publishes the question and any answer.

Answering body
Ministry of Justice
Tabled
16 Dec 2025
Target answer date
6 Jan 2026
Answer
6 Jan 2026 · 21 calendar days after tabling

Elapsed calendar days describe the record timeline, not whether Parliament considers an answer on time.

More questions by this MP on Justice and policing

Shared topic keywords suggest a connection; they do not establish a follow-up.

Votes on this topic

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Recorded timeline

  1. 16 Dec 2025

    Question tabled

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Crown Court courtrooms are not sitting on average in each month, and what steps he is taking to address the issue of Crown Courts not sitting.

  2. 6 Jan 2026

    Target answer date

    Date supplied by the official written-questions record.

  3. 6 Jan 2026

    Answer published

    HMCTS’s priority is to ensure all funded sitting days are fully utilised each financial year through active courtroom management. Last year we sat 107,771 Crown court sitting days, representing over 99% of our allocation, and we remain on track to deliver...

Open official record

Official data retrieved 28 Sept 2026.

Later records

Possible follow-up questions

Strong links require the same MP, department and exact heading. Other same-department questions are shown as unreviewed candidates, not as confirmed follow-ups. No debate link is asserted unless a stable source relationship exists.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Juries

6 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to apply trial by a single judge sitting alone retrospectively to defendants who have already entered a plea and elected trial by jury.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Trials

6 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has conducted an assessment of the amount of Crown Court and Magistrates’ Court sitting time lost as a result of the late production or non-production of defendants in custody.

Strong linkSame MP, department and exact heading

Crown Court

6 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the current average number of Crown court courtrooms that are not sitting in a month is; and what steps he is taking to address the issue of Crown Courts not sitting.