The principle of digitalisation has been left without Parliamentary backing in the wake of Brexit, says Roger Smith
Transform Justice is a young charity established in 2012 by a former magistrate, Penelope Gibbs. She is clearly a formidable operator and has edited a devastating report (Defendants on video – conveyor belt justice or a revolution in access?) on digitalisation in the English and Welsh criminal courts.
A background issue, to which Ms Gibbs alludes but does not draw out, is that senior figures in the judiciary have been persuaded to support government policies which may sound fine in theory but are problematic in practice. This is the downside of the more public role given to judges like the Lord Chief Justice with the demise of the former role of the Lord Chancellor. The support of senior judiciary like Lord Leveson, Lord Justice Briggs and Lord Thomas for the principle of digitalisation has perhaps impeded their objective articulation of the practical deficiencies. The judges are particularly exposed because promised legislative authority for the digital arrangements was first stalled by the 2017 election
