§ Mr. DevlinTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if the Court Service business and corporation plan will include policies on the distribution of courts and travelling times to them. [35112]
Mr. John M. TaylorThe question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executive of the Court Service is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked the chief executive to reply direct.
Letter from M. D. Huebner to Mr. Tim Devlin, dated 19 July 1995:
The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, has asked me to reply to the above Question about whether the Court Service Business and Corporate Plans will include policies for the distribution of courts and the travelling times to them.The purpose of the Court Service Business and Corporate Plans is to set out the aims and objectives of the Court Service, providing details of the activities through which it will seek to achieve them and the resources it has available to do so. There are no plans to include policy matters such as those you suggest. However, the Court Service Accommodation Plan, which is a published document, sets out the criteria to be considered in reviewing the location of a court, for example when considering the possibility of a closure. These include the availability of public transport, the location of the nearest alternative court and the cost of providing appropriate facilities for court users.