Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of delays in trials as a result of the covid-19 outbreak, on justice outcomes.

COVID-19 has been an unprecedented challenge for the criminal justice system, but we have continued to deliver justice throughout. The UK has been a global leader and we are ahead of most comparable systems.

Social distancing meant jury trials were paused, but the Courts did not stop. Across all Jurisdictions 159 Courts remained fully open to the public, and our ambitious use of technology has led to the Cloud Video Platform (CVP) being operational in over 100 courts, 90 police custody suites and 30 prisons, enabling us to conduct over 6,000 hearings on this platform. We will continue to roll this out at pace, and the benefits will be felt long after the pandemic has ended.

HMCTS have worked hard to keep Courts open and jury trials have now resumed. HMCTS are pursuing an ambitious plan to continue to increase capacity. Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been protecting the public which is why we have made sure the most urgent cases, such as domestic violence and overnight custody cases, have been prioritised.