Recommendation 11

HM Government Accepted in Part

27. The Ministry of Justice places great importance on the principles of openness and transparency in the criminal justice system, recognising how important it is for victims to be able to engage with criminal proceedings in a way which helps them to recover. Some victims may choose not to attend parts of the trial, including the sentencing hearing, particularly victims of sexual offences, due to the nature of the terrible crimes committed against them. 28. For victims of such offences, the ability to request a full or partial transcript of a trial is helpful and can offer a way to process the outcome. 29. At Commons Report Stage of the Victims and Prisoners Bill, on 4 December 2023, we announced our commitment to running a one-year trial, which will enable victims of rape and other serious sexual offences to request a copy of the judge’s sentencing remarks in the Crown Court, free of charge. This extends the current provision of free sentencing remarks for family members of homicide victims, where the individual is convicted of murder, manslaughter, or offences of causing death on the road. 30. Furthermore, this recommendation refers to using voice recording technology to provide sentencing remarks at a reduced cost. We have looked at how we can lower the costs incurred when obtaining sentencing remarks, and whether technology can be used to bring about such savings. However, this remains a manual process due to the limited accuracy demonstrated by recent voice-to-text AI pilots. Technology will continue to be tested in the future in the hope and expectation that the rapid technological advancement will enable us to improve accuracy rates, and consequently reduce costs, down the line. 31. This recommendation also calls for the Victims’ Code to include a right for all victims of crime to be provided with the sentencing remarks of the judge without charge. We have looked carefully at this matter, including the cost to the taxpayer and trade-offs in diverting resources away from other routes to support victims. Offering free sentencing remarks to all victims of crime has significant financial implications to the taxpayer. We believe that the recently announced trial strikes the right balance between the importance of supporting victims of these horrific crimes in a way which has the most impact, and the burden on the public purse. 32. We can assure the Justice Select Committee that more widely, the Ministry of Justice is working to increase the number of court judgments and tribunal decisions published online—including Sentencing Remarks and Crown Court transcripts. We recently conducted a call for evidence on the matter of open justice and asked the public for their views on this project. A Government response is due to be published next year.