11. Question No. 11—CourtsCHRIS PENK (National—Kaipara ki Mahurangi) to the Minister for CourtsQuestion No. 11—Courts11. CHRIS PENK (National—Kaipara ki Mahurangi) to the Minister for Courts: Does he have confidence that the court system is delivering timely justice for all Kiwis; if so why has the number of days to dispose of a serious criminal case in the District Court increased by 55 percent since 2017?Hon DAVID PARKER (Attorney-General) on behalf of the Minister for Courts: I have confidence in the court system but do acknowledge there has been an increase in delays. There are a number of reasons for this. These include the increased complexity and length of multi-defendant jury trials for drug offences. There's also been a trend towards more defendants electing trial by jury and later guilty pleas. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated delays but also highlighted opportunities for us to address them such as the better use of technology within the District Court.Chris Penk: What explanation then does the Minister give for the fact that the number of families waiting more than three years for a resolution through the Family Court has tripled since 2017 and what impact does he estimate any Government actions may have on those numbers?Hon DAVID PARKER: The main reason for delays in the District Court were the ridiculous changes to the rules by the last Government which continued to be in place until just recently when the current Government fixed them.Chris Penk: Why is it that into its sixth and final year of the current Government the Minister is still blaming the actions of the previous Government rather than taking any concrete positive action to actually fix these problems that he refers to?Hon DAVID PARKER: Well it's certainly not the final year of this Government—I've got bad news for the member. But in terms of the steps that are being taken the systems in the courts for many years—including under the prior National Government—have been very very antiquated. A paper-based system is run by the courts that does not link electronically to either judges prosecutors defendants or their counsel. The response of the Government to that is to have under way the curing of that problem through the digitisation of court practices which will vastly improve efficiencies. That project Te Au Reka is in procurement at the moment and after the completion of the IRD upgrade—which was an enormous project—this is one of the biggest IT builds across Government. Over time it's going to have a huge effect on the efficiency of the courts and that long term is the way to address these backlogs. In the meantime post-COVID—which did make these delays worse—$90 million of additional funding was provided to the courts to employ additional judges and administrative staff.Chris Penk: Is the Minister aware that moves were made during the COVID-19 response that allowed greater use of audiovisual link and other such technology but the Government disregarded the proposal of the National Party that such changes should have been made permanent thereby relieving some of the problems to which he's referring?Hon DAVID PARKER: I am aware that there was greater use of audiovisual technology and other mechanisms during COVID. I think the District Court working group on that issue has done some good work and I'm aware that the ministry as a consequence is expanding the availability of audiovisual facilities in more courts.Chris Penk: What explanation does the Minister give for the fact that Coroner's Court wait times—undue delays adding to the grief and stress of families—have been increasing every year since his Government has been in office to the extent that it is now a tenfold increase of families waiting longer than five years; and what impact does he think any reforms of the Government may make in that area?Hon DAVID PARKER: The member is correct that the coronial work programme the Coronial Services have lengthened in the time it takes to dispose of matters before them. There are changes currently before Parliament to address that both by allowing more general findings of death by general practitioners of elderly people whose cause of death is indeterminate which has led to the clogging up of coronial services because those general findings of death have not been permitted under the existing legal framework—so that's one part of the solution. In addition the Government has funded additional coroners and associate coroners.Chris Penk: Point of order Mr Speaker. Thank you sir. I seek leave to table the answer to written question No. 1036 (2023) which is not yet publicly available regarding the number of active coronial cases of five years or greater.SPEAKER: Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There appears to be none. It may be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.