Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he plans to take to enable vulnerable witnesses to be able to give evidence remotely.

The Crown courts and Magistrate Courts provide the facility to allow vulnerable victims and witnesses to give evidence to the trial court by secure video link from a different court.

In addition, a number of police stations also have video facilities that link into the court. As part of the action plan to increase video usage across the Criminal Justice System, we intend to examine how best to extend use of remote links for vulnerable, intimidated and other ‘priority' victims, as defined by the Victims' Code.