Nightingale courts bill up to £34m, justice minister reveals

The 23 existing Nightingale courts have provided 50 additional court rooms at a cost of more than £34m, a justice minister has revealed.

James Cartlidge said the total expenditure across the 23 sites to the end of January was £34.6m, in response to a question from Labour MP Alex Cunningham about the cost of Nightingale courts, which were introduced at the height of the pandemic to deal with the mounting backlog of cases.

The average cost of the 50 additional hearing rooms, 32 of which can accommodate Crown court jury trials, is £693,220 – but several sites have required considerably more money, with Prospero House in central London costing slightly over £6.8m for just three extra rooms.

Six additional hearing rooms were located in three former court buildings in Chichester, Cirencester and Fleetwood – which are among 244 court and tribunal buildings that have been closed since 2010 – at a total cost of just over £1.1m.

The total expenditure includes running costs, such as venue hire, security, and cleaning, as well as set-up costs such as enabling works and IT hardware, but does not include staff, judicial or court costs.

Cartlidge said: ‘Nightingale courts have been essential in keeping the wheels of justice turning throughout the pandemic when social distancing severely restricted our ability to carry out face-to-face hearings. We have worked hard to keep costs as low as possible and continue to make sure that these temporary venues are providing best value for money.’

In an answer to a separate written question from Cunningham about the future of Nightingale courts, Cartlidge said: ‘As Covid safety measures change we have been able to bring additional hearing rooms in our permanent estate back into use, which has reduced the need for Nightingale courts.

‘We now have over 470 Crown courtrooms available, which is comparable to pre-pandemic levels. An update on the future use of Nightingale courts will be provided in due course.’

The minister also revealed that 164 court and tribunal buildings which have been closed since 2010 have been sold, a figure which includes the sale of freehold court buildings but not buildings that were occupied under leasehold arrangements, in a response to a question from shadow justice minister Steve Reed.

‘Since 2015, sale proceeds totalling £211m have been reinvested in the HMCTS reform programme,’ Cartlidge added.