AwAb6slA
type: Answer
type: WrittenAnswer
answer has question: YSBzz4oG
answer has answering person: Uj24yw4q
answer text: The information is as follows: (1) HMCTS currently has 105 magistrates (volunteers) that sit at Dudley magistrates court and live in Dudley. All of these magistrates have been involved in pre-consultation meetings and all have had a copy of the consultation document to consider. HMCTS will continue to offer sittings on dates and at centres where they volunteer to attend and there will be no adverse impact on the number of magistrates required. We are unable to provide attendance details of volunteer victim support officers since HMCTS does not collect that information. (2) If the proposed listing pattern is implemented, the long-term viability of Dudley magistrates courthouse would be; following consultation with judiciary, stakeholders and court users, to use the courthouse to accommodate family, civil and tribunals (CFT) hearings. In contrast to the decreasing criminal work load, the CFT work load is increasing and there is a requirement for additional court estates to accommodate this rise. This would provide court users with local services which at present are only available in Wolverhampton and Walsall. HMCTS does keep its estates under constant review to ensure that it meets operational needs. The proposals in the consultation are designed to make better use of our estate and the judicial resources available in the black country to improve the service we provide to all court users. We can confirm that there are no plans to close Dudley courthouse. (3) There are no plans to make any staff redundant. In the eventuality that staff are required to undertake duties in neighbouring courts, HMCTS will undertake and comply with all statutory consultation procedures. It is proposed that Dudley courthouse will accommodate civil, family and tribunal hearings which will require staff resources thus reducing, possibly eliminating the need to ask staff to travel to neighbouring centres. (4) The consultation has been managed by a group of senior magistrates and senior manage…
answer given date: 2013-10-14+01:00
answer has answering body: BRTNQywN
written answer has answering body: BRTNQywN