Sarah Champion – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) children and (b) vulnerable adult witnesses gave evidence remotely in 2013.

Damian Green

Facilities for remote video links are now available in 84 Crown Court centres and 165 Magistrates Courts. These facilities enable the victim or witness to appear by video link from a different court location to that of the trial court.

As part of the action plan to increase video usage across the Criminal Justice System, we intend to examine how to best extend use of remote links for vulnerable, intimidated and other priority victims, as defined by the Victims’ Code.

The department does not hold a breakdown of child and vulnerable adult usage of remote links for giving evidence.