£142m pledged to improve 100 courts
The prime minister has announced £142m to digitally upgrade and maintain around 100 courts as part of a £5bn coronavirus recovery plan.
Although Law Society president Simon Davis welcomed the £142m, he also said wider funding was needed urgently across the justice system. Davis said: ‘Covid-19 has had a significant impact – with many courts closing temporarily and already high case backlogs increasing. Improving legal aid and ensuring more people are represented in court will also be vital in ensuring the courts run as efficiently as possible and clearing the backlogs.
‘The adoption of lawtech solutions is of increasing importance during a period of social distancing and lockdowns and it is only right that our court system is at the forefront. We also encourage the government to channel some of this investment into courts’ data gathering system to assess how well new technologies are working and which future changes are needed to improve our justice system.’
The full article and reaction to the announcement is available at the Law Gazette, link here.