County Courts: Closures
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many County Courts were (a) partially and (b) fully closed between 1 May 2010 and 1 July 2024, by region.
Answered by Sarah Sackman
The table below shows the number of County Courts that were permanently closed between 1 May 2010 and 1 July 2024, broken down by region. The figures do not include integrations, where workload remained in the local area by transferring to a building in close proximity, or courts that are temporarily closed. Some buildings are also multi-jurisdictional, so may also be included in data provided for other jurisdictions in answer to other parliamentary questions.
Region | County Courts closed |
London | 5 |
Midlands | 20 |
North East | 12 |
North West | 15 |
South East | 16 |
South West | 4 |
Wales | 4 |
There are multiple situations that can require a court to be closed to the public for a temporary period of time. Reasons include, but are not limited to, severe weather disruption, building issues and disrepair, loss of utilities, and in response to security concerns.
In order to help reduce the risk of building failures, we have announced a boost in court maintenance and capital project funding from £120 million last year, to up to £148.5m for 2025/26.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold central data covering all temporary closures.
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