Consultation on ‘COVID operating hours’ in Crown Courts
Applies to England and Wales
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
Having considered the responses to the consultation and assessed the current situation, the Lord Chancellor has taken the decision to endorse - on a short-term, timebound basis - a flexible approach (known as ‘temporary operating arrangements’) that supports Resident Judges who wish to:
- sit different hours to recover from the impact of the pandemic on their local caseloads
- use a new “remote” model for non-jury trial work that will enhance flexibility, and address concerns about changes in travel time
These measures are temporary and timebound. They will come to an end six months after any court chooses to implement them and we will carefully monitor their impact. It is one measure in the suite of recovery activity (such as remote hearings) available to Resident Judges as an option should they want to use it, and will not be mandated across courts and tribunals.
Any use of these models is at the discretion of the local judiciary and should follow careful discussion and consideration with local court users, including legal practitioners.
Original consultation
Consultation description
As part of HMCTS’ Crime Recovery Plan, one of the four pillars to recovery is to further maximise the use of our existing estate through opening our buildings for longer during coronavirus (COVID-19). The pandemic and its necessary countermeasures are an unprecedented challenge to the courts and tribunals which merits an unprecedented response.
COVID operating hours (COH) were piloted in seven Crown Court centres to test whether we could do more in the limited space we have to support recovery. The pilots were unrelated to previous pilots which have tested extended and flexible operating hours in the civil and family courts. They were purposefully designed to respond to the impacts of COVID-19, and to be a temporary response to increase capacity.
Following the pilots of COH at Crown Court locations around the country, assessment data was collected from each site to assess the impacts of COH and how effectively the pilots met the aim of increasing capacity to reduce backlogs. HMCTS then undertook a short, targeted consultation with the legal professions on the key findings from the assessment of the pilot sites and a proposal to widen the use of COH across more Crown court centres.
Presentation with question and answer session 7 December 2020
Documents
Updates to this page
Last updated 1 September 2021 + show all updates
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Welsh language response documents published.
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First published.