GovWire

The impact of remote hearings in the Crown Court was evaluated using a propensity score matching approach using data from January 2020 to March 2022. Remote hearings were slightly shorter than matched in-person hearings but using remote plea hearings did not impact the total duration of and the number of total hearings in a case. There were little meaningful differences found in differences in pleas submitted or in the outcomes for not guilty pleas when remote plea hearings instead of in-person were used. These results suggest wider outcomes of justice remain the same when remote hearings are used.