The UK plans to start recording magistrates’ court hearings for the first time. 

But it has not thought through the technology rollout nor cost needed to deliver the plan, the cross-party Justice Committee warned today.

The controversial UK Courts and Tribunals Bill (CaT Bill) is currently in Parliament for scrutiny. Its plan to roll out audio recordings is intended to make it easier for the nation’s 14,000+ magistrates to tackle appeals.

Under the bill, these would be reviewed, rather than re-heard in court. 

But the Committee said the plan would require “substantial investment” in tech, storage and admin support: “Yet the Government has failed to provide detailed costings, a credible implementation plan, or assurance that the necessary infrastructure will be fully operational before commencement.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson did not respond to questions from The Stack about audio recordings ambition and criticism from the committee.

They said in a boilerplate comment: “Only these reforms – combined with record investment and modernisation” will reduce the backlog of 459,000 cases in Crown and magistrates’ courts.

"Not a difficult technical feat"

The committee’s report comes after Richard Atkinson, Former President, Law Society, told MPs during a Justice Committee hearing in March that organising audio recordings from courts was “not a difficult technical feat.”

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Director of Legal Policy, Tom Guest, swiftly added that doing it would, however, “take some time, money and resource.”

Citing other recent troubled court digitalisation programmes, the MPs added they had “legitimate concerns” around whether the systems required for audio recordings could be “delivered reliably and consistently”.

The UK has struggled with previous digital projects in its courts, with video systems creaking, and many jurisdictions are still largely paper-based.

The bill also comes amid broader plans to increase the use of new technologies in the courts, such as new plans to introduce “AI legal assistants” to support case management and cut wait times in the Crown Court.

Clause 4 of the CaT Bill would let a court decide to do away with Jury trials. The Justice committee said: “We are unpersuaded that the Government has provided a sufficiently clear or principled basis for removing jury trial…”

The committee’s concern reflected its broader criticism of the bill, which Chair Andy Slaughter said came “without pre-legislative scrutiny by this Committee and with some potential unintended consequences.”

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