Written question asked by Mark Sewards (Labour) on Thursday, 21 May 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 1 June 2026. It was answered by Catherine Atkinson (Labour) on Monday, 1 June 2026 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Witnesses: Video Recordings

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) average and (b) maximum time was between the completion of Section 28 pre‑recorded cross‑examination and the start of trial in Crown Court cases in each of the last five years.

Answer: The Ministry of Justice does not routinely collect the information requested. However, an impact evaluation of section 28, published by the Department in March 2025, provides relevant data for the period January 2019 to September 2022. This evaluation found that in section 28 cases, pre-recorded cross-examinations occurred an average (mean) of 193.3 days earlier than the first trial hearing date. The evaluation did not include data on the maximum time for this interval.

Secondary information