City hotel to host a temporary court

The Hilton Hotel in York will be part of a drive to tackle the impact of COVID-19 on the justice system.

It will be used to accommodate a temporary “Nightingale Court” and will begin hearing cases from next week.

Another two prominent locations in Middlesbrough and Salford have also been confirmed as locations for Nightingale Courts, with a further five sites to be announced in the coming weeks.

In total they will deliver 16 extra courtrooms.

The Nightingale Courts will hear non-custodial crime cases, as well as civil, family and tribunals work.

The move will free up more room in existing courts to hear other cases, including custodial jury trials, which require cells and secure dock facilities to keep the public, victims and witnesses safe.

It brings the total number of Nightingales to 17, providing 32 court rooms set up across England and Wales to alleviate the pressure on courts and tribunals resulting from the pandemic.

An initial 10 opened their doors in the summer and are currently running at roughly 80% capacity – higher than the average of comparable courts in usual times.

Although the pandemic has worsened problems in the running of the criminal justice system, the case backlog predated the March lockdown.

The Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland QC MP said: “We are beginning to see positive signs thanks to the hard work of everyone working in our system – with the number of outstanding cases in magistrates’ courts now falling as a result of the measures we have introduced.

“But we must keep going if we are to get our courts back up to speed. These additional eight Nightingale Courts will further boost our efforts to increase capacity – reducing delays and delivering speedier justice for all.”

Crown Courts are currently holding over 100 jury trials, and clear more than 1,700 cases a week.

Plexiglass screens are being rolled out to 300 courtrooms and jury deliberation rooms enabling 250 Crown Court rooms to safely open for jury trials.

The latest Nightingale Courts announcement follows an £80m boost for HM Courts and Tribunals Service to meet the challenge presented by the pandemic.

This includes employing 1,600 new staff to support the recovery, setting up more temporary courts, and a further rollout of technology across the estate.

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