United Kingdom will make use of the budget that maintains underused courts in Wales and England to finance for new IT system and Wi-Fi's in other courts. Ministry of Justice (MoJ) confirmed that there will be 86 courts to be closed.
Originally, the U.K. Ministry of Justice was going to close 91 courts. However, Legal Cheek reported that five courts save themselves from the budget cutting. These are Bath, Carmarthen, Stockport, West Cumbria and St. Helens County Court. Of the 86 that will close, 22 of them will be placed in nearby government buildings.
According to Independent, the courts to be close are only used less than two times a week. Some officials are worried that people living near the courts which will be closed will have a hard time travelling to other court houses just for justice to be served. However, Justice Minister Shailesh Vara said 97% of those people will only travel for less than an hour to get to a new court house. He added that "Maintaining our underused and dilapidated court buildings costs the taxpayer £500m a year, but some courts sit for less than half the time available. This is simply unsustainable."
Moreover, there was a decrease in crime rate in the U.K., thus too many court houses are not needed. U.K. is also planning an online justice system so they are really looking for funds to sustain those. The Guardian stated that the old court houses will be sold and will turn into fast-food chains or flats. The taxpayers' money will be put into good use as they won't be funding poor quality buildings for court houses.
Though MoJ is seeing positive things to happen, many people are upset about their decision. Jo Edwards, the chair of family law organization Resolution, said several families and abuse victims will be affected because of this. He suggested that MoJ should have thought of ways to improve family courts rather than close many of them.
