The video system utilized for remote court hearings, which allows for the virtual participation of defendants in trials, experienced a significant outage this morning, plunging courts across England and Wales into a state of disarray. The Cloud Video Platform (CVP), essential for witnesses, lawyers, defendants, journalists, and all parties involved in legal proceedings to engage remotely, was non-operational on Tuesday morning.
The i Paper reported that it was unable to participate in a trial regarding an alleged terror plot at Sheffield Crown Court, where court personnel indicated that the CVP was unusable due to a “national issue.” A barrister from another court, who wished to remain anonymous, mentioned encountering similar problems, stating that many lawyers were also experiencing technical difficulties with a different system used for preparing and sharing information in crown courts. “It’s absolute chaos,” they remarked.
The Criminal Bar Association has confirmed receiving reports of outages in the CVP from numerous courts, including those in Birmingham, Canterbury, Southwark, Aylesbury, Leicester, Derby, Luton, Lincoln, and Peterborough. This disruption means that cases requiring the virtual presence of individuals unable to attend court physically cannot proceed. This includes defendants appearing via video link from prison and barristers participating remotely.
In addition to its use in criminal cases within both crown and magistrates’ courts, the CVP is also employed in civil and family court proceedings. The platform was introduced at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as part of the effort to reinvigorate the justice system following court closures and the capacity limitations imposed by social distancing measures.
Worsening Courts Backlog
The current outage of the video link will hinder ongoing efforts to address the escalating backlog of cases in the courts, which are now seeing trial dates scheduled as far out as 2028. There are growing concerns that increasing numbers of victims are opting out of prosecutions due to the distressing delays. Ministry of Justice statistics indicate that by the end of September, over 73,000 cases were pending in crown courts and 333,000 in magistrates’ courts throughout England and Wales. Some trials have faced postponements exceeding three years, with hearing dates set for as late as autumn 2027.
There is a widespread agreement that the escalating crisis can only be mitigated through a substantial increase in funding, necessary to enable the courts to operate at full capacity. The Criminal Bar Association has stated that even a modest rise in funding would be inadequate to resolve the entrenched issues, which include the growing shortages of barristers, solicitors, and judges essential for the functioning of the justice system. “The neglect of planning and funding for the interlinked components of our criminal justice system, with the criminal bar being a vital element, has significantly contributed to the unprecedented case backlogs,” a spokesperson noted in October. “Those who ultimately bear the brunt of a failure to reinvest immediately and substantially, with provisions for ongoing sustainable annual reinvestment, will be the ordinary citizens awaiting their trials to commence, let alone conclude—both defendants and victims of crime.”
The CVP has become an integral part of standard court operations and is regarded as a powerful asset in addressing court backlogs, enabling barristers to participate in multiple hearings within a single day, even if those hearings occur in different locations. By March 2022, approximately 11,000 court hearings were being conducted remotely each week. A national outage was previously reported in March 2021, when HM Courts & Tribunals Service attributed the issue to an “intermittent IT problem” stemming from a technical fault, clarifying that it was not a security concern. The causes behind the current technical difficulties remain unknown, and the Ministry of Justice has been approached for further comment.
Delay in Replacing £16m ‘Interim’ Video System
The government has invested at least £16 million in the Cloud Video Platform, as indicated by publicly available contracts. Three contracts have been awarded to the provider Kinly since 2018, with the latest one set to expire at the end of this month. A report from the National Audit Office in 2023 characterized the CVP as an “interim” solution, adding that “HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) did not view this as a long-term answer.”
In January 2024, HMCTS announced that a new system called the Video Hearings Service was being rolled out in select areas, specifically designed to cater to the needs of judges, court professionals, and the public. They described the CVP as an “off-the-shelf” service, stating that it would be replaced nationally starting in autumn 2024; however, this program is believed to have encountered delays. The remote systems are part of a broader £1.3 billion initiative aimed at modernizing courts and tribunals through the digitization of key services and enhancing overall efficiency. A report released by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee in June 2023 highlighted that the government had “struggled to deliver the promised reforms and meet its deadlines,” with significant components lagging months or even years behind schedule.
