Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 5 August (HL7250), when they expect to be able to share the results of the pilot for the "book a video link" service with stakeholders.

Since the pilot ‘book a video link’ service commenced at HMP Wandsworth and all associated courts on 31 March 2020, some 7,000 bookings have been made by court users.

Now that the first phase has been completed, user feedback from prison and court staff has indicated some minor refinements to the tool are necessary, in particular to improve the amend/cancel appointment function. Otherwise, the pilot has been judged a success, and the intention is to introduce the service more widely once the tool has been refined in line with user feedback.

HMPPS will be writing to prisons, courts and other stakeholders to advise them of the proposed plans for further roll-out. Subject to consultation with the prisons and courts involved, the initial expansion of the service is likely to be as part of the new video conferencing centres (VCCs) at HMPs Hewell and Thameside due to go live early in the new year. We are also looking to introduce the service in prisons that already have VCCs.