Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Government response to the Justice Committee's report on Court and Tribunal reforms, Second Report of Session 2019, HC 190, what the timeframe is for HM Courts and Tribunals Service to commission the independent evaluation of Video Remand Hearings in pilot sites which have not previously undertaken video remand hearings.

We are planning to commission independent research on video remand hearings and justice outcomes. The MoJ is currently undertaking an overarching evaluation of HMCTS reform. The evaluation will consider the effect of reform on fairness, access to justice and cost to users. Part of this evaluation will include an assessment of how video has been used across the reform programme. An overarching evaluation framework will be published in due course, and a final report will be published at the end of the reform programme