You will be aware that a phased return has begun of listings across the London Magistrates’ Courts beyond just custody overnights and urgent cases. There is no specific timetable we are able to share at this time as to the types of work that will start to be introduced by individual Court.
We share below links to the most recent Risk Assessments ** for each of the currently open Magistrates’ Courts.
**Please note, HMCTS has asked us to inform our members that these risk assessments are being continually updated and will become out of date very quickly.
The current position is that we are entitled to see copies of these risk assessments but the onus is on solicitors to apply for them for individual courts at local level by emailing the Court. We are pushing to encourage HMCTS to make these documents available in a central space to avoid the need to keep applying by email every time you are required to attend a Court.
Until then, we will continue to share any updated risk assessments shared with us but we would strongly encourage members to be making their own email applications to ensure that you are working with the most up to date documents when undertaking your own risk assessments.
Now that we have access to the Courts’ Action plans, we ask members to email us with any examples from Courts either failing to implement their own plans or examples of those Courts where good practice is in place so that this can be shared with those not doing so well. We are aware of the inconsistency in approach across the Court estate and you can help us to relay this information to the London Cluster Managers for targeted changes to be made.
Please email all examples including the Court name, date, brief details of the issues, any action you took to resolve the issues and any efforts made by the Courts to rectify them to admin@lccsa.org.uk We will work alongside the CBA to collect these examples and build up a weekly picture of what is happening on the ground compared to what should be happening according to the risk assessments and action plans.
We encourage members to continue to report serious health and safety concerns at the time to the Court staff as well as following up with providing examples to us for raising in the Working Groups with the London Cluster Managers.
Your health and safety remains paramount to us and your feedback will assist us in ensuring we can work together to make the Courts as safe as possible for all Court users at this time.
Covering Letter from William Breame – Cluster Manager for London Magistrates’ Courts: https://www.lccsa.org.uk/covering-letter-from-william-breame-cluster-manager-for-london-magistrates-courts/
Links to individual Court risk assessments here:
1 Highbury Magistrates Court

Highbury Magistrates Court Risk Assessment

Westminster Magistrates Court

Westminster Magistrates Court Risk Assessment

Willesden Magistrates Court

Willesden Magistrates Court Risk Assessment

Uxbridge Magistrates Court

Uxbridge Magistrates Court Risk Assessment

Barkingside Magistrates Court

Barkingside Magistrates Court Risk Assessment

Stratford Magistrates Court

Stratford Magistrates Court Risk Assessment

Thames Magistrates Court

Thames Magistrates Court Risk Assessment

Croydon Magistrates Court

Croydon Magistrates Court Risk Assessment

Bromley Magistrates Court

Bromley Magistrates Court Risk Assessment

Kerry Hudson
President