Written questions by McMurdock.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, what steps he is taking to ensure that blitz courts do not lead to prolonged waits for trials for other types of cases.

The Government is committed to reducing outstanding caseloads in the Crown Court while maintaining progress across all case types.Targeted initiatives, sometimes referred to as “blitz” courts, are carefully planned and time-limited exercises designed to make best use of available courtrooms, judicial capacity and sitting days. They are intended to increase overall throughput rather than divert resources from other cases. The plan is for London to use two courts at the Central Criminal Court specifically to accommodate the blitz courts.Listing decisions in the Crown Court are a matter for the independent judiciary. HMCTS works closely with the judiciary to monitor waiting times and operational pressures across the system to ensure that targeted activity in one area does not lead to unintended delays elsewhere.We continue to fund increased Crown Court sitting days and for 2026/27 we have removed the financial limits on how many days Crown Courts can sit in order to improve timeliness for all court users.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, how many blitz court sittings are planned from April 2026; and what offences will be prioritised after assaults on emergency workers.

Blitz courts in London will initially focus on assault on emergency workers and will be listed at Central Criminal Court from April. A total of 500 days have been allocated for this first blitz initiative. After prioritising assaults on emergency workers, we will consider other case types including sentencing cases, breaches and trials with no civilian witnesses.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, whether he has conducted an equality impact assessment on the expanded use of AI within courts and tribunals.

The Department and HMCTS have due regard to their obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty when developing and implementing policy and operational changes. Equality considerations are taken into account as part of the design and evaluation of service changes, and appropriate equality analysis has informed, and will continue to inform, decisions on the adoption and scaling of AI-enabled tools and services within courts and tribunals. This is undertaken on a use-case-by-use-case basis, rather than through a single blanket assessment.

Pursuant to his Department's press release entitled Health service to save millions with boost to electrify NHS fleet, by what date he anticipates the electrification of the NHS fleet of ambulances will complete.

The 10-Year Health Plan committed to support the National Health Service’s Net Zero ambitions. This includes NHS England’s Net Zero travel and transport strategy, published in 2023, which set a target date of 2040 for full decarbonisation of the NHS fleet, including ambulances.

Pursuant to his Department's press release entitled Health service to save millions with boost to electrify NHS fleet, published on 27 February 2026, by what date the additional hundreds of EV charging sockets funded by the £4 million boost will be installed across NHS sites in England; and how many of those are in Essex.

This £4 million in capital funding will be provided via a budget transfer from the Department for Transport to the Department of Health and Social Care in the financial year 2026/27, and capital will only be available for projects in that year. Projects have not yet been selected, and NHS England is leading the selection process, working in collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, what estimate he has made of the cost of rolling out the proposed AI courts assistant across HMCTS.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is progressing work to expand the use of AI to support court and tribunal operations across a range of use cases. The Department has not published a single estimate of the cost of rolling out AI across HMCTS, as costs and benefits depend on the specific use case, scope and implementation approach. Any decision to deploy AI-enabled tools more widely would be subject to appropriate evaluation and the development of approved business cases, including affordability and value for money in accordance with HMCTS governance and standards.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, whether blitz courts will be delivered through new additional capacity.

Blitz courts have been trialled previously and have shown positive results in reducing case backlog. The announcement of uncapped sitting days in the Crown Court in 2026/27 will enable more blitz initiatives to take place. The two court rooms which will be used are part of the existing London Crown Court Cluster.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, what estimate he has made of the time savings from the use of AI to transcribe hearings across the court system.

HMCTS is progressing work to expand AI-enabled transcription to support courts and tribunals. The Department has not published an estimate of time savings from the use of AI to transcribe hearings across the court system. It is worth noting that transcription of hearings is one of several use cases for AI assisted transcription. The main driver for hearing transcription is to make justice more open and transparent.In line with HMCTS Responsible AI principles, decisions on scaling AI-enabled transcription will be informed by evaluation, including impacts on efficiency, quality and user experience, and will include robust processes for how errors will be identified, challenged and corrected.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, what criteria will be used to evaluate the success of the AI-assisted listing pilot within HMCTS.

HMCTS will evaluate the pilot of AI-enabled support for listing against criteria that will include expected:reductions in administrative effort associated with listing;improved timeliness and consistency of listing activity;the impact on listing accuracy and associated rework; andthe effect on effective use of court capacity.This will be considered alongside feedback from operational users and the judiciary on usability and confidence. Findings from this stage of the evaluation will inform decisions on any wider deployment. If we proceed, we will design an evaluation approach in line with Government Social Research standards that we would expect to publish as part of the programme of work.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, which additional local authorities plan to adopt the scheme allowing prisoner transport vans to use bus lanes.

We agree with Sir Brian’s Leveson’s recommendation in the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts that Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) should be enabled to use bus lanes when transporting prisoners. However, these decisions are ultimately for local authorities.PECS vehicles already use bus lanes in Manchester, Bristol, Salford and Nottingham. We are currently engaging with local authorities across the country to expand this, and will work with the Department for Transport to ensure that local authorities are aware of the role they can play in reducing prisoner delays. For example, in London we are working closely with Transport for London to pilot a scheme that retimes traffic signals to prioritise PECS vans on three routes in the capital. Around 300 traffic lights will be adjusted so that PECS vehicles are more likely to receive green lights on their journey to court.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many recorded sewage discharge incidents into (a) the river Thames and (b) any other waterways in Essex that have occurred in each of the last five years; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce such incidents.

The Environment Agency (EA) received 635 reports of sewage pollution in Essex and 330 reports for the River Thames originating from water companies and private sewage treatment facilities in the last five years. The EA has strengthened its regulation of the water industry by recruiting additional specialist officers and has increased inspections of water company wastewater assets. The EA is on track to deliver 10,000 inspections nationally this year. Since April 2025, over 2,400 inspections have been completed across Thames Water and Anglian Water assets. Any permit breaches identified are assessed and serious permit breaches investigated and enforced against in line with the EA’s Enforcement and Sanctions Policy.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of trends in levels of in fly-tipping incidents over the last five years.

Defra publish fly-tipping statistics for England annually. A detailed breakdown of the latest incidents reported by local authorities is available at: Fly-tipping statistics for England, 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK This statistical notice provides statistics on fly-tipping incidents recorded by local authorities in England, for April 2024 to March 2025. It covers trends in the number of fly-tipping incidents, including over the last five years, with a breakdown by land type, waste type and size. It also covers enforcement and prosecution actions undertaken for fly-tipping incidents. It excludes the large-scale incidents dealt with by the Environment Agency and the majority of private-land incidents.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the maximum penalties available for fly-tipping offences.

The Secretary of State has not made a recent assessment. Local authorities have powers to take enforcement action against offenders. Anyone caught fly-tipping may be prosecuted which can lead to a significant fine, a community sentence or even imprisonment. Instead of prosecuting, local authorities can choose to issue a fixed penalty notice (on-the-spot fine) of up to £1,000 to fly-tippers and £600 to householders who pass their waste to an unlicensed waste carrier. Sentencing is a matter for the independent courts. When deciding what sentence to impose, the court will take into account the circumstances of the offence in line with the guidelines issued by the independent Sentencing Council.

What information his Department holds on the current number of court cases awaiting hearings in (a) Essex and (b) Basildon.

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of open criminal cases at the Crown Court for Essex in the ‘Crown Court receipts, disposals and open cases tool’ and for the magistrates’ courts in the ‘Magistrates’ courts receipts, disposals and open cases tool’. Essex can be selected under Local Criminal Justice Board (LCJB).Data is published for Basildon Crown Court in the Crown Court tool under the Crown Court filter - Criminal court statistics - GOV.UKData is not published at court level for the magistrates’ courts. The open caseload for the Basildon magistrates’ court was 1,700 as of the end of September 2025.The open caseload reflects the workload in the courts at a given time. It will never be zero, as it reflects the volume of cases that are active in the courts at a particular point, including those recently received, those close to being disposed, those which are complex and take time to complete, and those that may be awaiting further hearings.

What information his Department holds on the average length of time it takes for a court case to be processed and concluded in (a) Basildon, (b) Essex, and (c) England.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the time taken ‘at court’ in the magistrates’ courts and Crown Court for Essex in the ‘Magistrates’ courts timeliness tool’ and the ‘End-to-end timeliness tool’ (Crown Court).Magistrates ‘at court’ time refers to the number of days from first listing to completion at the magistrates’ court and for the Crown Court it refers to the time from first listing at the magistrates’ court to completion at the Crown Court.Data for the Essex Local Criminal Justice Board (LCJB) can be found using the ‘geographic area’ filter - Criminal court statistics - GOV.UKLCJB is the lowest geographic level of our published Accredited Official Statistics for timeliness. Our published timeliness metrics are produced at a sufficiently 'high' level to reduce the volatility and fluctuations associated with low volumes of cases i.e. using court level data. As a result, we are unable to provide timeliness data for individual courts in Basildon.The publication provides data for ‘England and Wales’ but does not contain a breakdown for England alone. When looking at data for England, the median time spent ‘at court’ across magistrates’ courts was 0 days for the year ending September 2025. This is due to the high proportion of Single Justice Procedure cases which commence and conclude on the same day. For the Crown Court, the median time spent ‘at court’ was 172 days for the same period.

What proportion of doctors completing general practice speciality training remained practising in NHS general practices three years after qualification, in each of the last five years.

This data is not held by the Department or NHS England.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with Basildon Council on town centre regeneration plans, in the context of the priorities of a) local residents and b) small businesses.

No specific discussions have been held. The government welcomes representations from Basildon Borough Council as we develop our new High Streets Strategy, backed by at least £150 million.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with Basildon Council on the a) reuse and b) redevelopment of empty shop units in Basildon town centre.

No specific discussions have been held. The government welcomes representations from Basildon Borough Council as we develop our new High Streets Strategy, backed by at least £150 million.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to increase levels of enforcement action against individuals responsible for fly-tipping.

Local authorities have powers to take enforcement action against offenders. Anyone caught fly-tipping may be prosecuted which can lead to a significant fine, a community sentence or even imprisonment. We encourage and support councils to make good use of their enforcement powers. For example, we are seeking powers in the Crime and Policing Bill to provide statutory fly-tipping enforcement guidance to support councils to consistently, appropriately and effectively exercise these existing powers. Following a review of council powers to seize and crush vehicles of suspected fly-tippers, we have issued best practice guidance on the website on the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group. This will support councils to make better use of their power to seize vehicles of suspected fly-tippers and action that could lead to selling or destroying the vehicle.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to Homes England’s press release entitled Homes England opens bidding for ten year Social and Affordable Homes Programme, published on 24 February 2026, what steps he is taking to encourage applicants to provide more than the 60% minimum requirement for social rented housing.

I refer the hon. Member to the answers given to Questions UIN 115205 on 3 March 2026, UIN 96282 on 10 December 2025, UIN 89351 on 21 November 2025 and UIN 60128 on 4 July 2025.