Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of trials that are waiting to be heard at (1) Maidstone Crown Court, and (2) Canterbury Crown Court; and when they estimate that the present backlogs will be cleared at each of these Courts.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The outstanding trial volume at Maidstone, as of Q2 (Apr-Jun) 2020, was 604 cases. This is 12% above the pre-COVID baseline of 538 cases in Q1 (Jan-Mar).
The outstanding trial volume at Canterbury, as of Q2 (Apr-Jun) 2020, was 377 cases. This is 10% above the pre-COVID baseline of 343 cases in Q1 (Jan-Mar).
Case receipts, finalisations and outstanding data is provided in the quarterly Criminal Court statistics published online at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics
In line with the Criminal Courts Recovery Plan, published in September 2020, HMCTS is increasing capacity to maximise the number of hearings that can be carried out in the context of social distancing. It is not possible at this stage to give a date for when the backlogs at Maidstone and Canterbury will return to pre-COVID levels, as it is dependent on the volume of receipts received, and the number of cases which can be dealt with within social distancing constraints.
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted HMCTS’ ability to list trials. Jury trials resumed at Maidstone and Canterbury Crown Courts on 29th June 2020. Currently, Canterbury can hear jury trials in three of its five courtrooms and Maidstone in six of its eight courtrooms, to ensure adherence to social distancing measures.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases were awaiting trial in (1) the Crown Court, and (2) the Magistrates' Court, as of 30 June.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The table below provides the current number of outstanding cases awaiting trial in the Magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court as of 30 June 2020.
Outstanding cases awaiting trial in the Magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court as at 30 June 2020 | |
Magistrates’ Courts (1,2) | 118,376 |
Crown Court (2) | 34,142 |
1. The Magistrates’ courts figure represents outstanding cases that are categorised as ‘for trial’ (Indictable-only and Triable-either-way). For example, this will include cases where defendants plead guilty and not guilty, and those where a warrant has been issued.
2. Though the outstanding figures for both Magistrates’ Courts and the Crown Court includes ‘for trial’ cases (Triable-either-way and Indictable Only), we are unable to say at what stage of the court process these are.
The volume of outstanding cases at the Magistrates’ Courts and the Crown Court are published as part of the National Statistics series ‘Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly’. These were last published on 24 September 2020. The next publication covering the period July 2020 to September 2020 is provisionally planned for publication on 17 December 2020 by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 5 August (HL7250), what plans they have to publish the data and feedback from all users of the Book a Video Link Service pilot at HMP Wandsworth.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Since the pilot ‘book a video link’ service commenced at HMP Wandsworth and all associated courts on 31 March 2020, some 7,000 bookings have been made by court users.
Now that the first phase has been completed, user feedback from prison and court staff has indicated some minor refinements to the tool are necessary, in particular to improve the amend/cancel appointment function. Otherwise, the pilot has been judged a success, and the intention is to introduce the service more widely once the tool has been refined in line with user feedback.
HMPPS will be writing to prisons, courts and other stakeholders to advise them of the proposed plans for further roll-out. Subject to consultation with the prisons and courts involved, the initial expansion of the service is likely to be as part of the new video conferencing centres (VCCs) at HMPs Hewell and Thameside due to go live early in the new year. We are also looking to introduce the service in prisons that already have VCCs.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 5 August (HL7250), whether they plan to roll out the Book a Video Link Service to further prisons and courts; and if so, (1) to list the sites, and (2) to provide information on when the system will go live in each site.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Since the pilot ‘book a video link’ service commenced at HMP Wandsworth and all associated courts on 31 March 2020, some 7,000 bookings have been made by court users.
Now that the first phase has been completed, user feedback from prison and court staff has indicated some minor refinements to the tool are necessary, in particular to improve the amend/cancel appointment function. Otherwise, the pilot has been judged a success, and the intention is to introduce the service more widely once the tool has been refined in line with user feedback.
HMPPS will be writing to prisons, courts and other stakeholders to advise them of the proposed plans for further roll-out. Subject to consultation with the prisons and courts involved, the initial expansion of the service is likely to be as part of the new video conferencing centres (VCCs) at HMPs Hewell and Thameside due to go live early in the new year. We are also looking to introduce the service in prisons that already have VCCs.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 5 August (HL7250), when they expect to be able to share the results of the pilot for the "book a video link" service with stakeholders.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Since the pilot ‘book a video link’ service commenced at HMP Wandsworth and all associated courts on 31 March 2020, some 7,000 bookings have been made by court users.
Now that the first phase has been completed, user feedback from prison and court staff has indicated some minor refinements to the tool are necessary, in particular to improve the amend/cancel appointment function. Otherwise, the pilot has been judged a success, and the intention is to introduce the service more widely once the tool has been refined in line with user feedback.
HMPPS will be writing to prisons, courts and other stakeholders to advise them of the proposed plans for further roll-out. Subject to consultation with the prisons and courts involved, the initial expansion of the service is likely to be as part of the new video conferencing centres (VCCs) at HMPs Hewell and Thameside due to go live early in the new year. We are also looking to introduce the service in prisons that already have VCCs.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 5 August (HL7251), whether Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service or the judiciary were among the interested parties with whom the findings of the final evaluation report of the Video Enabled Justice Programme were shared; and, if so, when any responses will be made public.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The final draft of the evaluation report was shared with HMCTS and judicial representatives engaged with the Video Enabled Justice Programme following its release in May 2020. HMCTS noted the findings to be included in a literary review of the use of video across the criminal justice system.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of trials that are waiting to be heard at St Albans Crown Court; and when they estimate that the present backlog will be cleared.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The outstanding trial volume at St Albans Crown Court, as of Q2 (Apr-Jun) 2020, was 704 cases. This is 10% above the pre-COVID baseline of 640 cases in Q1 (Jan-Mar). Case receipts, finalisations and outstanding data is provided in the quarterly Criminal Court statistics published online at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics
In line with the Criminal Courts Recovery Plan, published in September 2020, HMCTS is increasing capacity to maximise the number of hearings that can be carried out in the context of social distancing. It is not possible at this stage to give a date for when the backlog at St Albans will return to pre-COVID levels, as it is dependent on the volume of receipts received, and the number of cases which can be dealt with within social distancing constraints.
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted HMCTS’s ability to list trials. Jury trials resumed at St Albans Crown Court on 14 September 2020. Currently, the court is able to hear jury trials in two of its six courtrooms while ensuring adherence to social distancing measures. HMCTS is looking to increase this to three courtrooms by the end of November. HMCTS is also utilising Huntingdon Law Courts and will continue to sit two jury trials there, dealing with work from St Albans Crown Court, so that by the end of November there will be five courtrooms running jury trials for St Albans.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the pilot at HMP Wandsworth of the video link booking system developed by the Ministry of Justice to allow both prison and court users to book slots with the Video Conference Centre to minimise the need to interact via telephone or emails has been completed; what lessons have been learned from that pilot to date; and what plans they have to publish any such lessons.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The pilot for the book a video link service (BVLS) went live at HMP Wandsworth and all associated courts on 31 March 2020. It has now completed, and we are gathering data and feedback from users in both prisons and courts. This will be shared with partners and stakeholders in due course. Early indications suggest the BVLS has been positively received. Once the feedback exercise has been completed in the autumn, we will consider rolling out the BVLS at further sites.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether (1) Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service and (2) the judiciary, have evaluated the Video Remand Hearings, Summary and Crown Court trials and Prison to Court Video Links developed by the Video Enabled Justice Programme led by the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner and currently operating in Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey and Sussex; and, if so, whether they have concluded that it is suitable to be rolled out nationally.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The Video Enabled Justice Programme was a Home Office funded initiative and independent of HMCTS and the Judiciary. The Programme was sponsored by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex. Its focus was on video enabled remand hearings and live links for police witnesses. Researchers from the University of Surrey were commissioned by the Police and Crime Commissioner to undertake an evaluation of the Programme.
The evaluation looked at the new video and digital equipment installed at Medway Magistrates Court and seven custody suites across Kent together with the impact of the digital equipment and the conduct of participants in video enabled and non-video remand hearings.
The findings were shared with interested parties in the final report published in May 2020. No conclusions were intended to be drawn as to the suitability of scaling the Programme outside of the pilot areas.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the present backlog of cases awaiting trial in (1) the Crown Court, and (2) the Magistrates' Court.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The table below provides the information requested on the current number of outstanding cases awaiting trial in (1) the Crown Court, and (2) the Magistrates’ Courts.
These data are taken from the national statistics on the level of outstanding work in the criminal courts for the first quarter of 2020 which were published on 26 June 2020 and are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics. The data for the second quarter will be published in September 2020.
Outstanding cases awaiting trial in the Magistrates’ and Crown Court as at 31 March 2020 | |
Magistrates’ Court12 | 77,459 |
Crown Court2 | 31,686 |
Notes:
1The magistrates’ court figure represents all those cases outstanding that are categorised as for trial (Indictable-only and Triable-either-way) and not just those awaiting a trial hearing. For example, it will include cases where defendants plead guilty and not guilty, and those where a warrant has been issued
2 Though the figures for both Magistrates’ and Crown Court includes for trial cases (Triable-either-way and Indictable Only) which are outstanding for trial we are unable to say at what stage of the court process these are, for example, this may include cases where a trial has started but has not concluded.