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Question follow-through · 101092

Magistrates' Courts

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the capacity of magistrates’ courts to handle additional triable-either-way cases.

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
17 Dec 2025
Target answer date
5 Jan 2026
Answer
6 Jan 2026 · 20 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. 17 Dec 2025

    Question tabled

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the capacity of magistrates’ courts to handle additional triable-either-way cases.

  2. 5 Jan 2026

    Target answer date

    Date supplied by the official written-questions record.

  3. 6 Jan 2026

    Answer published

    The magistrates’ court is an effective and efficient jurisdiction – In the 12 months to September 2025 it disposed of 1,448,163 cases with an average timeliness (offence to case completion) for the most recent quarter of 191 days. The Government will ensu...

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

Trials

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what proportion of trials juries reached a not guilty verdict in each year since 2020.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Trials

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what proportion of trials without a jury was a not guilty verdict given in each year since 2020.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Civil Proceedings: Legal Costs

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the judgment in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others [2023] UKSC 28 as of 26 July 2023, what recent assessment his Department has made of the

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Civil Proceedings: Legal Costs

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the judgment in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others [2023] UKSC 28 as of 26 July 2023, what recent assessment his Department has made of the

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Youth Justice: Standards

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what evidence his Department has that culturally sensitive and anti-racist youth justice programmes funded by the Youth Justice Board deliver sustained, long-term reductions in reoffending beyond initial pilot ph

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Youth Justice: Ethnic Groups

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the extent to which judicial decision-making, rather than youth justice practitioner assessments, accounts for disparities in custodial remand outcomes for children of different eth

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Youth Justice: Ethnic Groups

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department's news story entitled The evolving response to ethnic disproportionality in youth justice, published on 19 December 2025, what steps he is taking to ensure that data on ethnic dis

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Criminal Proceedings: Artificial Intelligence

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of AI-generated transcripts in criminal proceedings; and how errors will be a) identified, b) challenged and c) corrected.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Criminal Proceedings: Artificial Intelligence

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 23 December 2025 to Question 100768, whether AI-generated transcripts will have the same evidential status as human-produced transcripts for the purposes of a) appeals and b) judicial re

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Offenders: Immigration Controls

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of a) rehabilitation and b) reoffending reduction policies for individuals convicted of immigration-related offences.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Reoffenders: Immigration Controls

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to introduce routine collection and publication of reoffending data for immigration-related cases.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Sentencing

2 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times sentencing courts have departed from sentencing guidelines on the basis of the interests of justice in each of the last three years.