Court safety concessions won

Public and commercial services union the PCS has announced that, having entered into a formal trade dispute with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over court safety and Covid-19, it has secured a number of concessions. It has therefore written to the CPS to agree that the dispute is over.

The union reports that the CPS has agreed to the following:

• a joint review and agreement of what constitutes business-critical work;

• an agreement on attendance at court on an exceptional and voluntary basis;

• an agreed triage listing arrangement where difficulties must be addressed within 48 hours, or deployment is suspended;

• HM Courts & Tribunals Service must carry out a risk assessment for each individual court building and share the findings with CPS staff 48 hours prior to the hearing;

• CPS must also carry out a risk assessment for every court, which must be conducted in advance of the hearing date and shared with staff and trade unions 48 hours prior to the hearing; and

• that the Cloud Video Platform (to allow remote hearings), is made available to paralegals.

https://www.pcs.org.uk/news/significant-concessions-achieved-in-dispute-over-court-safety