Ministry of Justice makes decision on where Shropshire remand cases will be heard
Remand hearings involving Shropshire criminal cases are moving back to the county having been taking place in Kidderminster for years.
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The move has been confirmed by the courts service, and the Justice Minister, before being welcomed by Telford's Labour MP, Shaun Davies.
A HM Courts and Tribunals Service spokesperson said: “We will be introducing a remand court at Telford Magistrates Court in order to deliver swift justice and increase efficiency.
“This follows a review of local operations and we are working with stakeholder representatives and court users to agree a suitable start date.”
Mr Davies said the decision would mean Shropshire was no longer the only county which was not hosting its own remand hearings.
Remand hearings were moved from Shropshire to Kidderminster in a controversial change back in 2018.
The situation was much criticised by legal teams who faced a 50-mile round trip to represent defendants.
It led to the introduction of video link hearings in 2020, which meant advocates did not have to appear in person.
Mr Davies had questioned Heidi Alexander, the Justice Secretary, on the issue earlier this month.
He asked about "what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse for moving magistrates court remand hearings from Shropshire Magistrates Court in Telford; and if she will hold discussions with His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service on reinstating remand hearings at that court."
Responding, Ms Alexander said the hearings would move back to Shropshire.
She said: "The decision to centralise remand hearings in the West Mercia area was a judicial decision taken by the local Judicial Business Group in 2017 following full public consultation.
"The decision was based on remand court volumes prevailing at the time, and enabled other courts in the area to improve efficiency and trial timeliness to the benefit of victims and witnesses.
"The position has recently been reviewed and based on current workload volumes, the Judicial Business Group has agreed to return Shropshire remand cases back to Telford Magistrates Court.
"Implementation of this decision is underway."
Reacting to the confirmation Mr Davies said: "I believe it is an important step. Shropshire was the only county in the country without remand court proceedings which on the face of it may not seem a big deal but if you are a victim of crime or a witness in the criminal justice system, or you care about public money being spent on legal aid, it was bad on all those counts so it is a common sense decision.
"Now we need a real focus on getting down the amount of time people are waiting for court cases to and trials to get the criminal justice system back on track."
