A criminal court built over the course of a weekend “worked absolutely perfectly”, according to inspectors who examined the UK’s military court service. Because courts martial may sit anywhere in the world, the service has a fully equipped “court in a box” that it can set up in any suitable building.
Anthony Rogers, chief inspector of HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, was invited by the military court service to assess its work. His inspectorate’s report is now published.
In an interview for A Lawyer Talks, Rogers (pictured) told me that there were lessons that the civilian courts could learn from how cases were tried by the military — though he stressed that the numbers of military trials was just a tiny fraction of those heard in the Crown Court. We discussed the differences between military trial and civilian trials — and how decisions were taken on which system should be used if both had jurisdiction.
Inspectors found the military court service to be an effective, well-led and highly regarded organisation that had a clear operational purpose, visible leadership and strong working relationships with other parts of the justice system. The inspectorate’s main recommendation was that it should adopt a single, secure digital court listing and case progression system in place of its current arrangements.
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