Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to conduct an evaluation of the impact and effectiveness of the expansion of powers under s28 Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.

Section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 gives victims the opportunity to have their cross-examination pre-recorded, without the ordeal of having to take part in a live trial, subject to judicial discretion.

We are looking at data from the pilots and working with partners to understand the operational changes we need to make to proceed with our plan to rollout of s.28 for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences in all Crown Courts.

This autumn, we aim to publish the results of a process evaluation conducted with victims and criminal justice practitioners who have used this provision.