Please see an update to the CVP roll out from Mark Taylor at HMPPS, updating an earlier message sent to members.
Dear Colleagues,
I wrote previously, providing guidance for using the new Video Meeting Room (VMR) service, which enables people to remotely join video calls with prisons in HMPs Bedford, Belmarsh, Birmingham, Bronzefield, Bullingdon, Doncaster, Durham, Eastwood Park, Elmley, Forest Bank, Foston Hall, Hewell, High Down, Hull, Leeds, Lewes, Low Newton, New Hall, Nottingham, Pentonville, Peterborough Female, Peterborough Male, Styal, Swansea, Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs.
Since yesterday Thursday 21 May, a further 6 prisons are now ready to serve the courts: Chelmsford, Exeter, Feltham, Leicester, Norwich and Winchester.
We also provided a guidance document to share with defence practitioner members who may have clients in those prisons (attached as a pdf). The guidance has been updated and it provides details on how to contact the central booking service to book consultations, how to join and conduct those consultations once booked, and also the authentication required for defence practitioners and any third parties they need to attend, such as interpreters.
Please note that the following prisons will continue to manage their own bookings, so practitioners wishing to make bookings for those establishments should contact them directly as follows. For ease, at the end of the guidance, there is now an alphabetical table of contacts for those prisons ready to serve the courts:
Prisons doing their own bookings | Contact |
Belmarsh | |
Chelmsford | |
Exeter | |
Feltham | |
Leicester | |
Norwich | |
Swansea | |
Winchester |
Please could you share the guidance with your Circuit Leaders and local Law Societies so it can be made available to defence practitioners who have clients in these prisons. You may also wish to share with your Police and Crime Commissioner. In parallel, we are also distributing the guidance to NPS colleagues.
As you will recall from my previous e-mail, the slots available are limited. We are therefore focusing on supporting the highest priority work listed by the courts, namely bail and sentencing hearings and custody time limited cases. We are also making slots available for the defence and probation consultations necessary to progress these priority cases. With the exception of those consultations required for scheduled Parole Board hearings, we are not able to make them available for other categories of legal consultation.
I will update you when further prisons are able to offer this service.
If you have any questions, please contact reconfigurationpmo@digital.justice.gov.uk
Kind regards,
Mark
| Mark Taylor Deputy Director, HMPPS Estates Strategy Prison Supply Directorate Tel: 07885 239682 Email: Mark.Taylor5@justice.gov.uk |
