Kinly Cloud Video Platform (CVP) is being rolled out across 60 magistrates courts and 48 crown courts, with others including the Civil and Family courts to follow.
In order to move people through the criminal justice system during lockdown, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service HMCTS is providing the courtrooms with streaming equipment, which will be available for cases such as remand, custody time limit and sentencing hearings.
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Magistrates courts in London, the South East, the South west and the Midlands have already begun using CVP, with the first going live earlier this month.
CVP connects securely to the existing justice video network which links police stations and prisons to courts, and can be accessed by any internet abled device with a camera and a microphone.
So far HMCTS has run 412 remand hearings using CVP, brought on line 26 police custody suites and connected 95 advocates. 95 advocates have been bought online, 42 Crown prosecutors, 20 Probation officers and two translators.
This streaming platform is also up and running in Crown Courts in Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and Hull, and more courts in the South East are set to go live. According to a statement released by the HMCTS yesterday, the aim is for 16 magistrates courts and nice Crown Courts to have access to have access to CVP by the end of the week.
His Honour Judge Guy Kearl QC, Senior Circuit Judge at Leeds Crown Court, said:
“In times of uncertainty, confirmation that the rule of law endures and justice will be served is a source of profound reassurance to us all.
This secure video conferencing technology is versatile and provides the functions essential to deliver a range of criminal hearings: I am delighted to be involved in its successful introduction”.
The UK Courts came Online this Year
The UK courts had been trialing different live streaming techniques before the pandemic. On March 12 the Court of Appeal announced that they will be using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to live-stream hearings in order to aid transparency, giving the court of appeal a much needed boost of confidence in the eyes of the public.
Legislation was aid in Parliament on 16th January this year to allow television cameras to broadcast from Crown Courts in England and in Wales.
The UK’s courts systems have faced a number of significant IT issues in recent years, including a major outage in January 2019.
Kinley Cloud Video Platform was founded in 2017, and is also used by American Public Bodies the United States Department of the Navy and Department of the Air Force.
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