Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has to implement a Nightingale Court in Nottingham.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Nightingale courts are one of the ways in which we are ensuring we have additional capacity to alleviate the pressure on courts and tribunals resulting from the pandemic. We are considering a number of locations for future Nightingale courts, but no final decisions have been made.
HMCTS has published an update on their response to covid-19 in the criminal courts in England and Wales (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus). This provides a comprehensive update on our recovery plans.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on what date (a) protective screens installed and (b) other covid-19 protective measures were introduced at Nottingham Crown Court.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
HMCTS has in place a range of measures, developed in line with, and validated against, relevant public health standards, to help to prevent the transmission of Covid 19 across the court and tribunal estate. Details can be found in the published Organisational Risk Assessment, and in the site-specific risk assessments undertaken and reviewed regularly at each building, which are available on request. These measures have enabled HMCTS to run its vital public services, and so maintain access to justice, throughout the pandemic emergency.
Nottingham Crown Court had screens installed on the 25th September 2020 into two jury deliberation rooms and two court rooms.
Furthermore, as well as requiring anyone in public spaces within our buildings to wear a face covering (unless exempt), a series of other measures have been put into place since the 16th March 2020 to ensure that the building operates in a Covid secure way, including introducing revised entry and search procedures for all court users, the provision of hand sanitiser at convenient points across the building, and public concourses marked out with socially distanced floor markings and appropriate guidance signage. In addition, all work assessed as suitable by the judiciary can be managed by way of remote/virtual hearings, and staff who can work remotely are doing so to reduce footfall and ensure social distancing can be adhered to.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of court security staffing.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
HM Courts & Tribunals Service keeps the security arrangements at its court and tribunal buildings under close review and we are satisfied that appropriate provision is in place to ensure that all of our sites are safe for our users.
In April 2020, OCS became the sole national provider for security services across the HMCTS estate, enhancing the day to day security provision at courts and tribunals. The new contract enables improved monitoring of security in our sites, provides enhanced training of security staff and delivers an improved experience for all users of our courts and tribunals.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to prioritise cases dealt with by the courts during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The prioritisation of cases is a matter for the judiciary.
HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has assisted the judiciary by providing analyses of caseload and case types for the most time-critical and sensitive cases.
HMCTS are investing record amounts, with £153m to improve court and tribunal buildings, as well as more than £80m on a range of emergency measures to tackle the impact of Covid-19, including the recruitment of 1,600 additional staff.
To enable judicial prioritisation HMCTS has rapidly rolled out technology to support far more remote hearings than could have been supported before the pandemic, set up Nightingale courts, conducted detailed risk assessments, and completed physical building works to enable hearings to take place safely where cases are prioritised for an in-person hearing.