James Mulholland QC, in his Monday Message to members this week, said the CBA raised the issue of testing with HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) before Christmas but have ‘just been informed that the Service is developing a limited pilot scheme in relation to lateral flow testing for all court users…We need testing brought in immediately. Testing kits should be on their way to all court centres now.’
He said there were problems with HMCTS’s attempts to track and trace court users, since not all barristers who tested positive for the virus had been contacted, and nor was HMCTS locating all those who had been in contact with those who had positive tests.
The CBA met with unions and representative bodies of professional court users last week to discuss ‘serious concerns’ about safety. Mulholland said: ‘A mass testing system needs an immediate, court-wide roll-out. We need a faster Covid vaccination programme for professional court users.’
He warned the new variant of the virus increased the risk of visits to poorly ventilated cell areas and trials where judges fail to take regular breaks. Various accounts, particularly from magistrates’ courts indicated the desire to push on with hearings was taking precedence over safety, he said, while ‘in the last few days alone, we are seeing professional court users continuing to test positive for the virus from Cardiff to Sheffield to Norwich’.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘We continue to work with DHSC (Department for Health and Social Care) to understand whether rapid testing could be delivered in a court setting.’
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