§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
In the light of the view expressed in The Times on 20 February by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, that the courts system may seize-up because of a funding shortfall, whether they will increase public expenditure on the courts. [HL1805]
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine of Lairg)Funding levels for the courts are set within the context of the overall spending review (SR) settlements for the department. We have recently completed the detailed allocation of resources across the department for the next three years, following the SR2002 settlement by the Treasury back in the summer. There have been some difficult choices in balancing competing demands for funding, but we have ensured that the focus has remained firmly on service delivery, particular in the courts. Specific measures that have been taken to protect front-line services include:
Ensuring that funding for the courts provides the essential staffing and sitting day levels required to meet PSA targets, taking into account our current performance on criminal, civil and family waiting times and administrative process;
Directing an additional 2,000 sitting days each year to family hearings;
Providing increased funding to maintain existing provision of security staff, and to allow for improvements to physical security (e.g. CCTV), in the courts;
Setting aside sufficient resource to take forward the key aspects of our IT modernisation programme across all jurisdictions.