Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March to Question 130227, on courts: video conferencing, how many hours of tribunal time are planned to be assessed during that evaluation.

We are currently holding a pilot within the tax chamber which allows both appellants and HMRC to join a fully video hearing from their own location and using their own equipment, using newly developed web based software. We have commissioned an independent academic evaluation which will give us insight into the way people engage with the system, identify what is working well and what needs to be improved.

It is planned that 24 cases will be heard during the video hearings pilot for an estimated total of 48 hours.