HMCTS staff have been scouting for potential venues to use as additional court buildings. Existing court estate buildings have been fitted with screens and other modifications to enhance safety.
The Cloud Video Platform (CVP) is to be rolled out further and new hardware installed to improve the quality of video hearings. HMCTS also wants to ‘increase the use of audio and video technology for more and new types of hearings, subject to the interests of justice’. All staff will be given laptops so they can work flexibly, while judges will be given support ‘to list in ways that make full use of the space we can safely use and maximise use of fee paid judiciary’. Alternative dispute resolution for cases will be supported where appropriate.
The proposals include reopening all courts and tribunals in July, in compliance with public health guidelines and ensuring sufficient staff are in place to support all physical and remote hearings.
‘While COVID-19 will remain with us for some time we are now at a point where the focus is shifting to recovery, applying what we have learned from what has been, in effect, the largest justice sector pilot ever conducted in this country,’ Lord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice, and Lord Justice Lindblom, Vice-President of Tribunals, said in a statement this week.
‘Importantly, the Lord Chancellor has agreed that we should not be constrained by the number of sitting days available in this period or to hesitate in using fee-paid and deputy judges to fill any gaps which cannot be filled by the salaried judiciary. It is now all hands to the pump.
‘We will see more audio and video hearings, including in new ad hoc court and tribunals venues, supported by more staff, equipped with new IT equipment which will allow them better to support the judiciary with remote hearings. The full functionality of the Cloud Video Platform will be rolled-out across Criminal, Civil, Family and Tribunals.’
However, Bar Council chair Amanda Pinto QC (pictured) criticised the plan to extend operating hours.
‘The Lord Chancellor must not extend court hours when there is no accurate data evidencing the output of that step; particularly when the MoJ’s independent evaluation of the Flexible Operating Hours pilot has not been produced (due months ago, now promised for the autumn),’ she said.
‘No court would come to a conclusion without reliable evidence and nor should the government.’
Pinto said the Bar Council supports ‘innovative ways of increasing capacity.
‘We have proactively suggested many recovery measures to ministers, officials and the judiciary. The MoJ must first assess the capacity likely to be achieved by maximising court buildings, adding court buildings, more staff and increasing robust technology for effective remote hearings. It must encourage sensible listing practices, in collaboration with the judiciary.’
She reiterated the Bar’s opposition to changes to jury trials―which the HMCTS plan does not mention.
‘It’s worth remembering that the government never suggested addressing the extortionate backlog it had created pre-COVID by doing away with or reducing juries,’ she said.
‘We have been told there is no reliable data and we have been shown no modelling to demonstrate a need for constitutional change. Though they now seem to be backtracking on some ideas (eg scrapping juries in some Crown Court trials), others, such as reducing juries to seven, still seem to lurk.’
View the HMCTS plan at: bit.ly/2NOEPQX.
