Yasmin Qureshi – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yasmin Qureshi on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many child victims and witnesses have given evidence from insside a court building in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Damian Green

We must do everything we can to support child witnesses and help them give their best possible evidence to bring offenders to justice.

The department does not hold data on the number of child victim and witnesses that use video links to give evidence (either a court building, or from a remote site).

The list below sets out the number of courthouses in each of the seven HMCTS Regions in England & Wales; criminal justice is a devolved matter for Scotland and Northern Ireland. These facilities enable any victim or witness to appear by video link from a different court location to that of the trial court; it is also possible for third party users to access the court system through a secure bridge.