Working together
As the country continues to grapple with the challenges brought by COVID-19 and the latest national restrictions, we wanted to thank everyone involved in keeping the wheels of the criminal justice system turning. It has been imperative that they have continued to do so; for the sake of every complainant, victim, witness and defendant. Justice may happen differently at the moment; but it cannot stop. This has only been possible through close collaboration involving a network of people from across the justice system, including staff, judiciary, the legal profession, organisations that support public users and a range of contractors, among others.
This kind of team effort is evident in the administering of the Prison Escort Custody Services (PECS) contract, which is managed by HM Prisons & Probation Service on behalf of HMCTS, the police and the prisons/secure children’s estate. The PECS contract came into effect for 10 years from 29 August 2020 was awarded to two suppliers, with GeoAmey managing the North and Serco the South, covering England and Wales.
Given the current understandable anxieties about the new, more transmissible variants of COVID-19, we wanted to take the time to reassure you about the steps we are all taking to keep custody suites in court safe for all who use them, as well as the additional measures in place when producing defendants to a court hearing from a prison.
Roles and responsibilities
Ensuring custody suites are safe is a joint effort. PECS is primarily responsible for providing the safe, decent, secure and timely transfer of prisoners and detainees to and from courts, and to oversee their care and security whilst in the court custody area or in the dock. PECS is also responsible for the safety and security of all other custody users or visitors during operating hours.
On the other hand, it is the responsibility of HMCTS to provide a safe, decent, secure court custody environment for the prisoners, PECS and all other custody visitors to work within. Throughout the pandemic, HMCTS and PECS have worked closely together to make custody suites COVID-secure and maintain these standards.
Safety measures in place
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, PECS has worked with HMCTS to introduce a number of appropriate measures to manage the safety of staff, detainees within its care, and court custody suite visitors. This range of measures includes:
- All operational court custody suites have been fully risk assessed, and are regularly reviewed, by HMPPS PECS Contract Delivery Managers (not supplier staff). These assessments have been reviewed in the light of the new COVID variant
- The assessments cover all areas within the court custody suite including consultation rooms. Any consultation rooms that do not meet safety requirements (i.e. 2m social distancing or mitigating factors such as screens) have been taken out of use
- Where conferencing facilities are limited or unavailable, locked down mobile phones have been provided and/or restricted use landlines have been installed to facilitate remote conferences
- Custody Officers should wear Public Health England/Wales-approved face masks at all times while working, unless they are exempt for medical reasons
- Defendants are strongly encouraged to wear face coverings
- PECS has engaged with the Young Barristers’ Committee and the Bar Council and has amended processes for the entry and management of professional visitors, following their feedback
- HMCTS has implemented regular touch point cleaning in all court custody suites and has made available basic cleaning materials (cloth & spray) to custody staff to enable additional cleans of touch points where need arises and where staff have capacity to do so.
HMCTS is also considering the implementation of further physical alterations to improve these environments. This includes reconfiguring space or moving fixed furniture to enable more consultation rooms to be used, and installing screens where appropriate.
Managing coronavirus cases
There have been recent concerns about prisoners possibly being presented at court with symptoms or while awaiting a test result. I want to reassure you that HMPPS is clear in its instructions – any detainee that shows coronavirus symptoms, has had close contact with a positive case, or has a positive test result will not be cleared to travel to court. HMPPS is also exploring whether we could use additional COVID-19 testing as a further safeguard, beyond our existing programme of testing prisoners on reception to custody.
Remaining vigilant
We recognise that the level of concern is high across society during this third national lockdown. And we want to reassure you that neither PECS nor HMCTS is complacent - we listen to suggestions for improvements and routinely review standards and implementation, but we only implement additional measures where they are supported by public health guidance and will make a difference to the safety of our buildings. If a custody visitor has concerns about a particular custody suite, they should contact their local court manager. Reporting issues locally will always ensure the swiftest resolution to a matter.
You can also provide feedback centrally using our let us know service on GOV.UK. One of our central team will follow this up with the local court or tribunal, so the right local managers will be able to tackle and respond to the concern.
We all know that justice cannot stop and we must play our part in maintaining this essential service – for victims, witnesses, families in crisis and defendants waiting in custody. Together, we can make sure we work to the safety measures in place – and rigorously adhere to the hand-face-space guidance – to keep all those using custody suites and the wider court buildings safe.
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