To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his letter to the Justice Committee on 20 January 2021, if he will publish any documents relevant to the joint work completed by the Ministry of Justice and Home Office on video remand hearings referred to on page 2 of that letter to assist hon. Members in understanding the basis for the proposed change to legislation.
Answered on
8 February 2021
Video Remand Hearings (VRH) were rolled out over summer 2020 to help reduce footfall in courts and therefore the risk of transmission of Covid-19. Whilst PECS officers were deployed to help with administrative tasks in relation to VRH, the circumstances where PECS officers may have custodial responsibility for defendants and exercise their powers are set out in primary legislation (section 80 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991). A change of that legislation is therefore required to specifically confer PECS officers with custodial responsibility for defendants whilst in police stations. This limits their immediate ability to completely facilitate a full remand hearing via video until the change is made. The government is exploring bringing forward appropriate legislation when parliamentary time allows.