HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has said it plans to begin a national roll out of its Video Hearings Service from the autumn of this year.
The service is being designed to provide a more flexible and accessible channel for remote hearings that the existing Cloud Video Platform.
HMCTS is already using the Video Hearings Service in some civil and family courts, along with some specialist courts and tribunals, and is now planning a wider implementation that is expected to take it into criminal courts next year.
Senior service manager Claire Jukes referred to the plan in a blogpost, saying the specialist technical support in service centres is ready, and that HMCTS is in talks with stakeholders from the judiciary, professional court user associations and the third sector to ensure the service meets the needs of participants.
This comes two months after HMCTS published an award notice for a three-year, £18.5 million contract under which Vodafone will provide the Video Hearings Service. According to an earlier report, this will involve the provision of a video conferencing facility and an interface with an already developed front end application.
The service includes virtual meeting rooms for secure pre-hearing consultations and negotiations, private meeting rooms for judicial office holders and a built-in self-check that people can use before a hearing to ensure their equipment works. Jukes said that most participants will have to create an account to use the service and a link specific to each hearing will be created.
Meeting needs
“The Video Hearings Service is specifically designed to meet the needs of judges, court professionals and members of the public,” she added. “This includes providing simultaneous interpretation which allows participants and their interpreters to hear each other in the hearing and in a virtual meeting room, allowing interpretation to proceed without disrupting the hearing.”
HMCTS began a series of pilots for video hearings in 2018 and in 2020 increased their use during the Covid-19 pandemic, then produced a positive evaluation.
