The Ministry of Justice fully utilises the office space it occupies within its headquarters building.

Receipts from the sale of court and tribunal buildings since 2015 are used to form part of the overall budget for the £1.2 billion HMCTS Reform Programme. It is not possible to provide a breakdown for how sale receipts have been spent within the programme.

The HMCTS Reform Programme has already delivered services which allow people to apply online for cases in Immigration and Asylum, Divorce, Probate, Civil Money Claims, benefit decision appeals, and local authority childcare applications. We are also currently rolling out the new Common Platform system in the criminal courts which will ensure the courts, CPS and police all have access to the same case information.

The following table sets out the total amount of compensation paid to individuals and the costs paid to legal representatives, by the Ministry of Justice in each of the last three financial years, where those payments relate to claims or potential claims made against the department in respect of accidents that took place on the estate administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

Variation in levels of payments and costs between years is determined by a range of factors, but principally the severity of the injuries and associated impacts sustained or suffered by respective claimants.

The payment of compensation or costs in any particular year does not necessarily relate to the timing of the accident or incident concerned. In more complex and contentious cases, the accidents concerned may have occurred some years before the settlement payments are made.

**Figures provided up to end of Feb 2022

The following table sets out the total amount of compensation paid to individuals by area by the Ministry of Justice in each of the last five financial years, where those payments relate to claims or potential claims made against the department in respect of accidents that took place on the estate administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service geographic areas.

*Figures correct as end of February 22

There is no geographical trend evident, by which accidents occur. Health and safety risks are routinely monitored for any such trends, and that analysis informs the management of risks across the estate.

Safety and protection of victims and witnesses coming to courts is a priority for HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), and those courts that do not have dedicated separate entrances all have processes in place to enable victims and witnesses to use alternative secure routes to get into a court so they would not have to enter alongside defendants. These processes include using alternative entrances including staff and judicial entrances, staggering the time people are asked to arrive at court, arranging for Witness Service representatives to meet and escort victims and witnesses and using separate waiting areas where available or annexes to court buildings or other buildings so that victims can join the hearing via video.

Any court attendee who has questions or concerns about going to a court building can contact the court. They can also speak to their witness care officer or the Crown Prosecution Service if they have any concerns about entering the court and may need to enter separately from a defendant. They can also ask their witness care officer to refer them to Victim Support if they live in London or the Citizens Advice Witness Service if they live outside of London, and these organisations can arrange a pre-trial visit to the court. Further information for victims and witnesses going to court is also available at www.gov.uk/going-to-court-victim-witness.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) buildings have facilities and operational practices in place to make sure HMCTS fulfils its commitment to provide victims attending court with a different entrance to the defendant, and a separate waiting area before and after a case is heard, where possible. This is all done in accordance with the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime in England and Wales and the Witness Charter.

The most recent audit that looked at dedicated separate entrances for victims and witnesses was carried out in 2019. Of 359 courts who were surveyed, 170 (47%) had a dedicated separate entrance for victims and witnesses. Courts without dedicated separate entrances have processes to enable victims and witnesses to use alternative secure routes to get into a court.

The following table sets out the total amount of compensation paid to individuals by the Ministry of Justice in each of the last three financial years, where those payments relate to claims or potential claims made against the Department in respect of accidents that took place on the estate administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service:

*The figures for 2021/22 are correct as at end of February 2022

Compensation payments made to individuals, as listed, do not include any legal costs that might also have been paid. Variation in levels of payments between years is a determined by a range of factors, but principally the severity of the injuries and associated impacts sustained or suffered by respective claimants.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does not record how many courtrooms in each Crown Court building in England and Wales have been unused in each of the last three years. Crown courts sit twice a day in sessions and utilisation is monitored by measuring the number of sessions available and those used. It would be a disproportionate cost to ascertain accurately the number of crown courtrooms unused from this data.

The courts sales proceeds for each of the courts sold by HMCTS since 2010 is shown below. Purchaser information was published in PQ 132501 for the period 2010/11 to 2017/18, however, HMCTS does not hold this information from the 2018/19 financial year onwards.

Since 2015, sale proceeds totalling £211m have been reinvested in the HMCTS reform programme, to transform the justice system, including introducing 21st century technology and online services to increase access to justice and improve efficiency.

The decision to close any court is not taken lightly. It only happens following full public consultation and only when effective access to justice can be maintained.

As part of the Spending Review, we are investing £477 million in the Criminal Justice System over the next three years to help reduce the backlog further and deliver the swift access to justice that victims deserve.

The question cannot be answered without invoking disproportionate cost.

Since 2010, HMCTS have sold a total of 164 court buildings. This figure includes the sale of freehold court buildings; it does not include court buildings that were occupied under leasehold arrangements.

Since 2015, sale proceeds totalling £211m have been reinvested in the HMCTS Reform programme, to transform the justice system, including introducing 21st century technology and online services to increase access to justice and improve efficiency.

The decision to close any court is not taken lightly. It only happens following full public consultation and only when effective access to justice can be maintained. Courts that have closed were either underused, dilapidated or too close to another that remains open.

The Department has worked closely with BEIS to develop the Net Zero Strategy and the Heat and Buildings Strategy, which outline our approach to reaching net zero and to decarbonising heat in buildings.

Local authorities play an essential role in driving local climate action across energy, housing, and transport. We continue to work with local authorities, capitalising on their unique knowledge of their communities, which is essential to ensuring effective delivery of net zero locally.

Public Health England has published guidance on the ventilation of indoor spaces which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-ventilation-of-indoor-spaces-to-stop-the-spread-of-coronavirus/ventilation-of-indoor-spaces-to-stop-the-spread-of-coronavirus-covid-19

The Health and Safety Executive has published guidance on ventilation and air conditioning here:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation/index.htm

Using this guidance, local authorities should assess the risk from Covid and implement the appropriate transmission risk controls. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to assess risks and implement the appropriate controls. HSE is the health and safety enforcing authority for local authority activities and can take proportionate enforcement action.

Council-managed buildings are advised to pay due regard to the published guidance above, alongside any sector-specific guidance

I refer the Hon Member to the answer to Question UIN 3760 on 21 January 2020; the report will be published shortly.

Competent persons schemes are voluntary under the building regulations 2010, and we expect that the installation of fire resistant glazing would be covered by the existing scheme for general glazing. More generally, the issue for increasing competence across industry is being addressed through the work of the industry led Competence Steering Group to deliver the reforms recommended by Dame Judith Hackitt.

The Government does not specify which materials or approaches to construction should be used to meet the requirements of the building regulations, as a prescriptive approach would limit the ability for innovation.

Developers and designers should use the guidance in Approved Document B to decide whether fire resistant glazing or fire resistant material in corridors could be used to meet the requirements of the regulations in the construction of buildings.

The Department has regular engagement with residents living in buildings with unsafe cladding, including correspondence from residents of Radnor House.

For buildings which require non-ACM remedial works, residents’ safety remains this Government's utmost priority and there is no excuse for building owners not ensuring that residents are safe in their homes. Government will continue to support leaseholders and is reviewing options on how best to do so.

The Home Office will bring forward legislation shortly to put beyond doubt that building owners and managers of all multi-occupied residential buildings must assess the risks from cladding and front doors to individual flats under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This legislation will:

• require building owners to review their fire risk assessments to comprehensively cover all common parts of these buildings.
• affirm that fire and rescue services can take appropriate enforcement action, in particular supporting the remediation of buildings with unsafe cladding in high rise buildings
• provide the firm foundation required for taking forward recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase One report (accepted in principle by the Government in October 2019), which called for new legal duties on building owners for high-rise residential buildings around inspection and information sharing with Fire and Rescue Authorities. A consultation on Home Office proposals is due to be issued in the spring.

Additionally, the forthcoming Building Safety Bill will put a requirement on dutyholders to ensure accurate and up-to-date building safety information is available and accessible to those who need it. A Mandatory Occurrence Reporting system will be established by the Building Safety Regulator, and dutyholders will be required to report any structural safety or fire safety related event which is perceived by them to represent a significant risk to life, in buildings within the scope of the new regime.