Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 38
38
Accepted
Paragraph: 130
Single Justice Procedure's lack of transparency remains a significant concern.
Conclusion
We remain concerned by the Single Justice Procedure’s lack of transparency.
Government Response Summary
The government claims existing provisions for the Single Justice Procedure already provide more information to the public and media than traditional open court proceedings, citing online publication of case lists and detailed information for media. It states it may explore the SJP further through a call for evidence in 2023.
Paragraph Reference:
130
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
While the Criminal Procedure Rules require all courts to give certain additional information on individual cases upon request from the media and other interested third parties, courts are currently obliged to give more information on cases prosecuted under the SJP. This includes the prosecution statement of facts and the defendant’s statement in mitigation. In addition, a list of pending SJP cases is published online each day and is available to the public. The media also receive a more detailed list of these cases so that they can report on them if they so wish. The media can therefore receive more information about cases dealt with under this procedure than traditional proceedings in open court, where they only receive such information if they actually attend the hearing. The SJP may be one of the themes we will explore via the call for evidence we will be launching in 2023. We will carefully consider stakeholders’ views, alongside the conclusions and recommendations in the JSC’s open justice report, before making any future decisions.