Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to extend the live reporting of court proceedings to local television.

Live reporting of court proceedings has been allowed in the Court of Appeal since 2013 and sentencing remarks have been broadcast in the Crown Court since July 2022.

Only the following authorised media parties, agreed with the Lord Chancellor, can apply to film court proceedings: BBC; ITN; SKY; and Press Association (PA) Media. These media parties will be able to use their footage on their respective television and online news channels and can make their footage (including stills from the filming) available to other media organisations. Members of national, regional and local media interested in a particular case can contact the authorised media to ask them to apply to film a case’s sentencing remarks.

These are the only exceptions to the prohibition on filming in court and no one else can film, broadcast or take photos of any hearing at any time. We will carefully monitor the impact of the Crown Court broadcasting changes we introduced in the summer of 2022 before deciding whether to make any further interventions.