To ask the Minister of Justice for an update on the Speeding Up Justice programme.

The Speeding Up Justice Programme is a five-year programme of work, driven by Criminal Justice Board, to reduce avoidable delay across the criminal justice system. Part of the Executive’s Programme for Government delivery, specifically with regard to the Safer Communities priority, it is underpinned by the Reform and Transformation of Public Services priority.

The Programme comprises five projects – Out of Court Disposals, Early Engagement, Committal Reform, Remit of the Magistrates’ Court and Digital. The Early Engagement and Out of Court Disposals projects are supported by £20.5m of transformation funding.

Out of Court Disposals is advancing at pace and I hope to bring forward secondary legislation on this issue in the coming months that should see expanded powers for police officers to deal with more lower-level offences by way of Penalty Notices, diverting cases from the courts where they currently attract only monetary fines, and ensuring that finite criminal justice resources are used effectively.

The next phase of Committal Reform, direct committal, is progressing towards implementation later this year, allowing the most serious cases to progress more quickly to the Crown Court.

Work is ongoing to identify opportunities for early engagement between police, prosecution and defence, including improving file quality and taking the learning from the Better Case Management processes used in England and Wales.

I am also exploring options to expand the jurisdiction of the magistrates’ courts, to enable more proportionate handling of cases and help reduce backlogs within the court system.

All of the projects will be supported by Digital initiatives to help make the projects more sustainable.

Taken collectively, the Programme should rebalance resources with lower-level offending dealt with outside formal court process, releasing much needed resources to deal with the most serious offences.