HM Courts and Tribunals Service has received an additional £150m funding in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic recovery funding covers the provision of additional PPE equipment and cleaning across the HMCTS estate; the provision of additional staffing and judicial resources; the provision of safety and security works; the provision of technology to enable remote hearings, and the provision of additional courtrooms, often referred to as ‘Nightingale Courts’.
Where possible, HMCTS has utilised existing baseline budgets to cover COVID-19 requirements. However, the main challenge throughout the pandemic has been the ability to operate the criminal courts, especially the safe and secure operation of Jury trials in a socially distanced environment, resulting in higher levels of expenditure, as outlined within the table below.
Jurisdiction – Full Year Allocation | £000’s |
Criminal court services | 72,365 |
Civil and Family court services | 36,795 |
Tribunals | 14,803 |
*Multi-jurisdiction & corporate Expenditure | 26,037 |
Total | 150,000 |
The latest reported spend to date as at 31 January 2021, by business area, is set out below.
Jurisdiction – Expenditure as at 31 January 2021 | £000’s |
Criminal court services | 32,018 |
Civil and Family court services | 19,486 |
Tribunals | 6,275 |
*Multi-Jurisdiction & Corporate expenditure | 19,036 |
Total | 76,815 |
Continued high levels of COVID-19 response and recovery activity remains in place to enable HMCTS to actively respond to the challenges of delivering a safe and effective service during these challenging times.
These efforts will be bolstered by the £110m being invested into a range of measures to boost court recovery and the £337m Spending Review settlement to deliver speedier justice to convict offenders, support victims, and protect the wider public.
*Multi-jurisdiction & corporate expenditure includes services delivered on a national basis covering several business areas, for which a single jurisdiction is not identifiable within the financial system; examples include additional PPE, some IT costs and telephone conferencing expenditure.
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