A member of parliament's bid to make transcripts of court proceedings available for free is gaining cross-party support, its sponsor has said.
Jess Brown-Fuller, Liberal Democrat MP for Chichester, tabled an early day motion (EDM) early this month calling on the government to extend free access to transcripts across the justice system. Currently, under the Sentencing Act 2020, Crown court sentencing remarks are provided free of charge. The EDM looks to go further, calling on full transcripts of proceedings in both Crown and magistrates’ court cases to be made available.
Brown-Fuller told the Gazette that access to transcripts would help victims process and better understand their trials.
She added: ‘We know that lots of victims can not sit through an entire trial. By the time it gets to sentencing, they do not feel able to go. I have heard stories where people have said they wanted to go to the sentencing or wanted to go to the summing up, but the public gallery was too small [and] the defendant’s family was sat there and they did not welcome or did not feel safe. Some are exhausted by the whole thing or retraumatised.’
Brown-Fuller commended the government’s work so far in providing access to sentencing remarks in Crown court cases but added: ‘Even they would recognise that progress is slow.' She added: ‘It should not be the privileged for those who can afford to have it, to understand what is happening or has happened in their trial.’
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So far, 35 MPs – including fellow Lib Dems, Labour, Green and the Democratic Unionist Party members – have signed hte motion. Brown-Fuller said she was pleased with the cross-party support. ‘I just hope that now continues to grow,’ she added.
Charlotte Meijer, founder of Open Justice for All, began the campaign in 2023 after she requested court transcripts for a magistrates’ court trial in which she was the complainant. She was told it would cost ‘thousands and thousands’ before being told no recordings were done in magistrates’ and therefore no transcript could be obtained.
Meijer said her campaigning ‘means something positive has come out’ of her own experiences through the justice system. ‘It was not all a waste of time if I can help others coming from the system and be a driving force,’ she added. ‘The investigation and court process – there was no point to it. It was a horrendous experience.
All magistrates’ court proceedings should be recoded, she said. 'You need to have accountability and that transparency. In the short term, access to judge’s summing up but in the long-term I want the government to develop AI technology to be able to transcribe hearings or write court transcripts.’
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