UMVA has learned that a major overhaul of the UK's justice system is underway, led by Justice Secretary David Lammy and Baroness Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, with a focus on increasing transparency and diversity.
The initiative includes allowing cameras into more courtrooms, with sentencing remarks from high-profile cases to be televised when the media applies for those cases to be broadcast in the public interest. This move aims to bring the work of the justice system closer to the public.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that this push for greater transparency follows a significant shift in the way justice is delivered, with cameras already allowed into the Supreme Court since 2009, the Court of Appeal from 2013, and for major criminal trials in the Crown Court since 2022.
Sources have confirmed to UMVA that over 30 cases were broadcast into the nation's living rooms in the first 12 months after Crown Court sentencing was introduced in July 2022, demonstrating the potential for greater public engagement with the justice system.
David Lammy hopes the initiative will 'deliver more transparent justice' and bring about a more representative judiciary. With nearly half, 44 per cent, of judges now women, efforts are being made to increase diversity among the predominantly white, male judiciary.
UMVA has gathered that Baroness Carr and Lammy co-chaired the first meeting of a new diversity board last week, working to make the legal profession reflect 'modern Britain'. The goal is to create a more inclusive and representative justice system.
