this thread is simply of verbatim quotes from damning report on the £1.2 billion digital court reform programme (justice by skype, swipe right to plead guilty etc) from @CommonsPAC publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cm… We have little confidence HMCTS can successfully deliver this hugely ambitious programme to bring court system into the modern age. While other countries have attempted elements of what HMCTS is doing, no other country has attempted to change its whole system at this scale/pace.

thread on unrepresented defendants in the Crown Court. Why was the government so opposed to publish report (which for many months only I externally knew existed)? Think because it implies that unrepresented defs do not get a fair trial & legal aid threshold not cost-effective Pity so little research on unrepresented defendants. No data collection on numbers in mags & no research with defendants. No data on how many trials in Crown involve unrepresented defendants