- Barbican and Maple House Nightingale courts begin hearing
cases this week
- part of government’s plan to ensure justice continues
throughout the pandemic
- 50 courtrooms now open nationwide
From this week, Maple House in Birmingham city centre will
provide four additional courtrooms, freeing up space at
Birmingham Crown Court. A venue in Barbican in central London
will provide two courtrooms and hear cases from across the city.
This brings the total number of Nightingale courtrooms to 50.
The moves form part of a £113m investment to ease pressures on
courts and tribunals, including recruiting 1,600 extra staff,
further technology, and on-site safety precautions such as
plexiglass screens. This is in addition to the £142m being spent
to speed up technological improvements and modernise courtrooms.
The impact of these measures is already being seen:
- England and Wales are believed to be the first comparable
major jurisdictions in the world to resume jury trials, with
hundreds now being listed each week
- outstanding cases in the magistrates’ courts have fallen by
over 50,000 since the peak last summer
- the number of cases resolved in the Crown Courts reached
pre-pandemic levels in December 2020
- more than 20,000 hearings using remote technology are taking
place each week – compared to around 550 in March 2020 – a 4000%
rise
Courts Minister, , said:
We have achieved an immense amount in our battle to keep
justice moving in during the pandemic – restarting jury trials
before anyone else, turbo-charging the rollout of video
technology, bringing magistrates’ backlogs down, and opening
more courtrooms for jury trials.
These new courtrooms are the latest step in that effort, and I
am determined to minimise delays and ensure justice is served
for Londoners.
That is why we are investing hundreds of millions to drive this
recovery further, deliver swifter justice and support victims.
The decision to keep courts and tribunals open during the
pandemic has had a tangible impact on people’s lives. Between
April and September 2020 over 9,000 court orders were issued to
protect children from female genital mutilation, forced marriage,
and domestic abuse.
Meanwhile, a major £40m investment announced last month will go
towards specialist help for vulnerable victims – funding
helplines and the recruitment of more counsellors. This comes as
an extra £337m was confirmed in the recent Spending Review to
deliver swifter justice and support victims in 2021/22, while
£76m will further increase capacity in family courts and
tribunals.
