Recommendation 1

HM Government Acknowledged

• The Ministry of Justice has been innovative and adapted our ways of working to ensure that the courts kept running during the pandemic, including a significant increase in the use of digital. Not only have we increased the amount of cases heard via video and audio during this crisis, we have also worked to improve these digital hearings through a national rollout of Cloud Video Platform (CVP). This has enabled us to increase the number of hearings we were able to hear, and since the pandemic thousands of remand hearings have been heard via video, enabling hearings to continue to take place despite the limitations of social distancing. • Guidance is available on GOV.UK for joining telephone and video hearings. HMCTS has also published guidance for legal practitioners who are involved in video enabled criminal hearings. • HMCTS have reviewed the implementation of remote hearings in response to COVID-19. This included observations of recorded hearings and interviews with a range of users to quickly identify issues and help improve the processes. • There will be a further evaluation of the use of remote hearings during the pandemic, to help inform our use of audio and video technologies in the longer- term. The findings will help address issues around the experience for users, the administrative support needed for hearings, technology and audio-video quality standards. The findings are planned to be available in early 2021. • The evaluation will include analysis of monitoring data, user surveys, and qualitative interviews with different types of users. It will collect evidence on the volumes, characteristics and outcomes of remote hearings. It will explore whether users face barriers to its use, and if so, how these vary for different users. • The evaluation will explore whether experiences, perceptions (including of fairness) and outcomes vary by mode of hearings for a range of user groups. However, it will be extremely difficult to isolate the sole impact of audio and video technology from the wider context, as so many changes have occurred in tandem due to the pandemic. Once the public health emergency is over, a further evaluation will be needed to explore the impact of audio and video hearings on outcomes for users. Fifth Special Report 5 • HMCTS have reviewed the implementation of remote hearings in response to COVID-19. This included observations of recorded hearings and interviews with a range of users to quickly identify issues and help improve the processes. • As the legal system recovers from COVID-19, we want to continue improving how the courts use technology and are committed to monitoring and evaluating the impact of the use of video and audio on court users. • HMPSS has been working to increase video capacity in prisons in response to the increased demand. As mentioned in the covering letter this includes expanding video conferencing capacity in prisons and standardising and extending operating hours for prison video for local and reception prisons that service the courts and have a remand population. Regarding, face-to-face legal visits, we now have an Exceptional Delivery Model in place as part of recovery planning which prisons and youth custody establishments are implementing to ensure those visiting are able to do so safely.