Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to ask the Judicial College to develop guidance for judges, magistrates and magistrates’ legal advisers about when video hearings should be used for vulnerable defendants; and what reasonable adjustments should be made if a video hearing is used, including the use of intermediaries.

The Judicial College provides training for Courts judiciary in accordance with the Lord Chief Justice’s statutory responsibility. One of the key resources to support training in this area is its Equal Treatment Bench Book. This reference work has just been updated, will shortly be re-published, and will be publicly accessible online. Chapter 2 deals with vulnerable witnesses and defendants, video links and intermediaries.

Senior judiciary who are Heads of Division may consider whether guidance is required in any area and this usually takes the form of publicly available Practice Directions. At present on this topic there are relevant references in the Criminal Practice Directions which were last updated in July 2017 by the then Lord Chief Justice.