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The £11 million Video Enabled Justice (VEJ) initiative
will be piloted across London and the South East.
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Sussex Police figures show a police officer can spend
over five hours away from work for each court
appearance.
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As well as saving valuable police time waiting for
court proceedings the pilot will create facilities for
vulnerable victims to give evidence away from court and assist
key witnesses who are unable to travel.
A new video link scheme designed to improve the way police
officers give evidence and free up more time for front line
duties will be piloted thanks to an £11m Government cash
injection.
The Video Enabled Justice (VEJ) project, led by Sussex Police and
Crime Commissioner , will use a network of
high-tech video links in police stations and other buildings so
officers can give evidence direct to courts, without the need to
travel.
Further work will also be done on using the network for
vulnerable victims to give evidence remotely or for key
witnesses, unable to travel to court, to participate.
The Minister for Policing and the Fire Service will today (Monday) announce the
funding in a speech to the Police Superintendents Association
Conference, as part of a £60 million package for police reform
and digitisation projects from the Police Transformation Fund
(PTF).
Minister for Policing and the Fire Service said:
“We must embrace digital policing, push forward with vital
reforms and transform forces so that we can take on the
challenges of policing in the years to come.
“Crimes traditionally measured by the independent Crime Survey
for England and Wales are down by more than a third since 2010,
but we know that crime is changing.
“That means we must be ambitious in our improvements and Police
Transformation projects, such as Video Enabled Justice, are
exactly the type of endeavour that will maximise frontline police
time and mean police can better respond to the evolving
challenges of public safety.”
The £11m awarded for Video Enabled Justice builds on an earlier
project trialled in Sussex, funded through the PTF’s predecessor,
the Police Innovation Fund. If successful, the scheme - which
will be piloted across London and the South East - could be
rolled out nationally in the future.
Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner and Chair of the
Sussex Criminal Justice Board, , said:
“I welcome this ground breaking investment from the Home Office.
“The Criminal Justice Partners I have worked with on this bid all
want to provide the best possible experience for victims and
witnesses to give evidence.
“This funding will allow us to embed Video Enabled Justice across
the system and will deliver greater flexibility and access to
court time, saving police officers and witnesses up to five hours
waiting for court slots, and not requiring police to drive some
defendants across the county for a five minute hearing.
“I want to improve access to justice for everyone. We know giving
evidence by video works, so now we have to scale it up as
part of the policing and criminal justice transformation
agenda.”
As well as the £11 million funding for Video Enabled Justice,
awards made by the Home Office from the Police Transformation
Fund include:
- £6 million to Cheshire, Essex, Hampshire, Gloucestershire and
Merseyside forces, over the next three years, for the reform of
digital policing.
- £23 million has been granted over the next three years for a
suite of measures which will provide the NCA,
Regional Organised Crime Units, and police forces
with new capabilities to detect, monitor and disrupt organised
crime groups.
- £12 million allocated over the next three years to North
Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Wiltshire, Northumbria and the
Metropolitan police forces for their proposals in local policing.
This will provide an innovative approach to engaging with the
community, using sport to reduce youth offending and transforming
volunteering in the police to ensure that the community has a
greater say in how their areas are kept safe.
- £600,000, over the next two years, to Avon and Somerset and
Essex to drive greater collaboration between police and fire –
whether that is through greater collaboration or a transfer of
fire governance.
