Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress her Department is making on reducing the (a) cost and (b) time to taken to produce court transcripts for victims who request them.

Bereaved families of victims of murder, manslaughter and fatal road offences can request a free transcript of the judge’s sentencing remarks. On 22 May we announced that, following the conclusion of a one-year pilot at the end of May, we are continuing the scheme that enables victims of rape and other sexual offences to apply for a free copy of the judge’s sentencing remarks.

More widely, we are actively considering how to make court transcripts more accessible, and we continue to explore the potential for using AI to produce transcripts more quickly and cost effectively.