The MoJ will provide an extra £17.4m for the tech required, which will be piloted in four police areas. Prison vans will be permitted to skip traffic queues by using bus lanes.
The MoJ is currently recruiting specialist case coordinators for every Crown Court, another recommendation to help courts tackle delays. It has accepted or accepted in principle most of Lord Leveson’s 180 recommendations, which were published in two parts in July 2025 and February 2026.
It accepted in principle the recommendation for 130,000 sitting days in the Crown Court per year, noting sitting days have been uncapped for this year and are planned to increase to 117,000 in 2028–29. The MoJ stated it was ‘ambitious in our plans’ although it did not believe 130,000 days were ‘possible at present or in the next few years’.
The MoJ also agreed ‘legal aid investment should support earlier engagement’, accepting in principle the recommendation to include attendance at pre-plea and trial preparation hearings in early-engagement payments. It accepted in principle annual reviews of legal aid fees, and increasing the threshold for legal aid in the magistrates’ courts.
It rejected Leveson’s recommendation for magistrates’ sentencing powers to be restricted permanently to a 12-month maximum. The Courts and Tribunals Bill, which returned to the House of Commons this week, would allow magistrates to sentence up to 18 and 24 months for single and multiple triable either-way offences.
The MoJ also rejected Leveson’s recommendation for a 40% reduction if a guilty plea is made at the first possible introduction, since the system must ‘strike the right balance’ between incentives and punishment.
