Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in how many prisons are virtual courts (a) operational and (b) in active use for sentencing, trials and other hearings.

There are 37 prisons that currently have a primary reception function to serve the courts - 30 male prisons and seven female. In addition, six prisons provide a smaller reception function to support the male estate. These establishments either have a prison to court video link facility (PCVL) or a video conferencing centre (VCC) that can be used for court hearings and any associated official consultations. All are operational and active.

PCVLs and VCCs can also be used for sentencing. It is for judges to decide whether a prisoner should be produced to court in person or for a hearing to be held via video.

Work is underway to scope the next tranche of VCCs to be delivered by March 2025.

We have reconfigured the adult male prison estate into three main functions: reception, training and resettlement. Reception prisons serve the courts in the first instance by accepting those sent to custody following sentence or on remand, and producing men either in person or virtually for subsequent court hearings until sentence.

All other prisons in the training, resettlement and high security estates have video capability to support official consultations and, by agreement, parole and court hearings when required. It is possible to transfer prisoners to other sites for official video business, however, where possible, prisons will use their own video facilities.