Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the affordability of court transcription services.

The MoJ is required, under the public procurement regulations 2015, to publicly compete all opportunities for contract. This process helps the MoJ drive value for money through competition for these contracts from a healthy and established transcription industry. Our internal governance process help ensure that value for money is a key factor in how we procure and select our suppliers. We are confident that the rates being currently charged are in line with wider market rates.

The services are currently being reprocured due to existing contracts coming to expiry.