Rape victims will be able to access sentencing remarks made by judges to their abusers in court, as ministers consider using artificial intelligence to widen transparency.
Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, has extended a pilot which allows victims of rape and other serious sexual offences to obtain free copies of sentencing remarks, as she extended the use of AI to civil and family cases.
Sentencing remarks have been made available to victims of rape since May last year, to allow them to understand why certain outcomes had been reached.
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These will now be available on an ongoing basis.
A source close to Mahmood said this had been an issue she had been “personally driving” and while there are no current plans to expand AI into crown courts, she was keen to explore how it could be used to support survivors.
AI transcriptions will be rolled out in civil and family courts from Monday, and officials hope it will be able to speed up manual transcripts, create them where none currently exist and improve public access to proceedings.
It is understood that once this is in place, the court system will be able to explore other opportunities, including summarising cases. The department is also developing a digital assistant to help families resolve child arrangement disputes outside of court and a new AI tool is also being piloted to translate complex court judgments into simpler, age-appropriate language.
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Sarah Sackman, the courts and legal services minister, said: “We are piloting the use of artificial intelligence transcription as part of our bold plans to modernise our courts and tribunals.
Sarah Sackman
CHRISTOPHER L PROCTOR FOR THE TIMES
“This pioneering technology has the potential to produce transcripts more easily, reducing costs and allowing staff to focus their time on supporting hearings rather than burdensome administration, and we are looking at how we can expand this provision.
“We also know the value transcripts have for victims of rape and sexual offences which is why we’ve extended a pilot providing free sentencing remarks transcripts to support survivors and improve transparency.”
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Mahmood previously said she wanted to “make further progress on using AI technology to make transcripts more widely available, because I believe in a transparent justice system”.
She said: “I would like to be in the position of using AI technology to make not just sentencing remarks available. We are thinking about making broadly what happens in courts and such transcripts more widely available.”
The Times previously revealed how victims, including children, were having to pay thousands for transcripts of their own court cases.
Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrat MP who has campaigned on the issue, welcomed the expansion of the scheme.
Sarah Olney
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
She said: “I welcome their commitment to seeing what can be done, which I think is the most important thing here. And I think, let’s see what increased use of AI can deliver.”
She said victims want to “feel like they’re more than just witnesses to their own experience” and that “they want to feel like their needs are being considered within the criminal justice system”.
She said: “I think for many people, what it is, is just understanding the procedures that the court undertook to reach the verdict that they went to, but also the discussion that’s taking place, what evidence is being presented, what the cross examination revealed. If they’re not present, then they don’t know.”
Olney said that due to the low levels of convictions for rape cases, she would also like to see those cases where a defendant is found not guilty included.
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She said: “There are so many people who have these experiences and are brave enough and resolute enough to go through that court process, only to find that their attacker is not found guilty and is not sentenced and goes free.
“And for those people, more than anything, I feel quite strongly that they do need to have an understanding of the process.”
She added: “I am going to continue pressing for court transcripts, I would very happily accept a less than 100 per cent accurate version of the transcripts, because I don’t think that’s what’s required [for victims]. And if AI can produce that I’m happy to see what … emerges from AI trials.
“But I absolutely think that all victims of sexual assault who are brave enough to take their attackers to court absolutely 100 per cent deserve a transcript, if that’s what they want.”