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HM Courts have prioritised listing of Custody Time Limited and Convicted/Unsentenced hearings. To allow prisons to continue effectively servicing the courts, we have already advised that we were urgently rolling out a service across prisons with existing video capability to allow people to join video calls remotely. Thanks to governors, directors and staff in our prisons, the new service, video meeting rooms (VMR), has been rolled out and tested across the Local/Reception estate. Work is underway to rollout and test the service at remaining prisons with existing compatible video capability.
The new service went live on Monday 27 April as part of a phased rollout. The order of rollout will align with HMCTS-led work to switch on video meeting rooms across the court estate.
In anticipation of increased demand, and to alleviate pressure on prisons, the new central booking service became available on 27 April for those prisons ready to serve the courts. The slots available are limited. We are therefore focusing on supporting the highest priority work listed by the courts, namely bail and sentencing hearings and custody time limited cases. We are also making slots available for the defence and probation consultations necessary to progress these priority cases. With the exception of those consultations required for scheduled Parole Board hearings, we are not able to make them available for other categories of legal consultation. (Please note that HMP Belmarsh will continue to take its own bookings.)
The new video service does not have capacity for general consultations, and criminal justice system professionals are being directed to make use of telephone contact with prisoners for other essential consultations instead.
We will brief the defence community and NPS so they are aware once the system is ready in the additional prisons listed, and so they know how to make bookings. We will also remind them that the service is for priority work only and not for general consultations.
We are now preparing to engage with governors and staff in the training and resettlement estate to ready them to support Parole Board and court hearings, police and probation interviews and psychological consultations through their existing PCVL equipment.
Due to anticipated demand, the slots available are likely to be limited, and prisons will aim to support the highest priority work. In particular, this will include Parole Board, court, and extradition hearings. It will also include the consultations with legal advisers, probation and psychologists necessary to progress these cases and hearings. Other uses of prison CVP VMR will be at the discretion of the prison and will depend on whether they have capacity.
We will brief the Parole Board, psychologists and NPS so they are aware once the system is ready in the prisons listed, and so they know how to make bookings. We will also remind them that availability may be prioritised as equipment at many sites is limited.
For those prisons currently using VMR, or about to have it installed, to enable the content sharing over Cloud Video Platform VMR, all video end points across HMPPS require a remote update to the video equipment. This update will take place on the evenings of 17, 18 and 19 June from 17:00 onwards and does not require any on-site user interaction. To enable this update video equipment needs to remain powered on. Please ask video staff to ensure that all video equipment is left powered on at the end of the day over these 3 days. If you have any CVP vmr video calls booked for after 5pm on these days please can your video staff contact reconfigurationpmo@digital.justice.gov.uk. I attach a wallchart that can be displayed to discourage anyone from turning off the equipment.
If you have any questions, please contact reconfigurationpmo@digital.justice.gov.uk.