Problem-solving courts stuck at pilot: no statutory footing, central unit or rollout funding

Intensive Supervision Courts, judge-monitored community orders for offenders with addiction and complex needs, have piloted since June 2023 in Liverpool, Teesside and a women's court in Birmingham, under time-limited powers from the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. The final process evaluation is published, and a second wave opens from spring 2026 through an expression-of-interest round that closed in October 2025. Twenty years after the first UK drug courts there is still no permanent statutory framework, no dedicated delivery unit, and no recurrent funding line, so each expansion is a bespoke pilot. The Centre for Justice Innovation provides evidence and technical assistance as a charity with no commissioning power, and the Sentencing Act 2026's shift to community sentences increases the need for exactly this supervision model.

Sentencing reform now sends thousands more offenders to community sentences, and these courts are the evidenced model for making those sentences credible for the highest-need cohort. Without a rollout vehicle, the pilots' judicial expertise and partnerships dissipate, as happened to previous UK drug and community courts when pilot funding ended.

A statutory framework making the reviewing-court power permanent and national, a named problem-solving courts unit in MoJ and HMCTS with multi-year funding, and an outcome evaluation programme, turning expression-of-interest pilots into a commissioned national service.

// State-led: Instrument: Sentencing Act amendment making ISC powers permanent, plus a named MoJ/HMCTS unit and multi-year funding.

The Sentencing Act's shift to community sentences raises demand for supervised courts just as a second pilot wave opens, and no permanent framework, unit or funding secures them.