Robert Jenrick

Robert Jenrick

Reform UK — Newark

Speaking in the House of Commons on 5 March 2025

Debate

Courts and Tribunals: Sitting Days

Contribution

I do not pretend that cutting the court backlog is easy, or that it will be quick, but the Justice Secretary owes the country a plan and a timetable for when that backlog is actually going to fall. This morning, she was repeatedly asked that question, but refused to give an answer. Can she tell the country now when the court backlog will begin to fall, by what date her Department has forecast it falling, and why she will not take up the 2,500 additional sitting days offered time and time again by the Lady Chief Justice? Lastly, the new sentencing guidelines published alongside this statement will make a custodial sentence less likely for those “from an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community”. Why is the Justice Secretary enshrining this double standard—this two-tier approach to sentencing? It is an inversion of the rule of law. Conservative Members believe in equality under the law; why does she not?

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