Coronavirus has struck at the heart of how our justice system operates. Before the crisis, the system had been buckling under pressure from years of government cuts and the Ministry of Justice’s budget had been slashed by about 40 per cent since 2011.
There has been little investment in the court estate for many years. Yet, almost overnight, the profession was asked to change how courts and trials operated, and to move online so that the wheels of justice could keep turning. However, there wasn’t a suitable infrastructure to facilitate the move.