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Court process

Court notification – move to court process (Back to top)

There is a service level agreement (SLA) in place that sets out the minimum requirement of His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), Police, and His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS).

Expectation for all is that all documentation will be sent digitally on the Common Platform and legacy systems (Libra and XHIBIT) when dealing with any person in court, who is either remanded in custody or serving a custodial sentence in a prison.

If the defendant is later placed in another prison, it is the responsibility of the prison that transfers them to ensure all relevant paperwork is transferred to the receiving prison.

Where prisons are unable to access required documents, in exceptional circumstances holding prisons can request information from courts.

Once a court notification is received the establishment would need to request a move using the Book a Secure Move electronic platform in readiness for collection of that individual in a timely manner for their court appearance.

Further information on obligations and expectations in relation to court notifications can be found on the current SLA.

Court turnaround (Back to top)

The maximum waiting period post court hearing and the maximum time limit spent on an escort vehicle will also drive different transport scheduling behaviour from escort suppliers.

This will see an increase in women and young people being transported on separate vehicles to adult male prisoners, with obvious decency improvements for those individuals.

It will also help to ensure that these prisoners are not delayed by the dropping off on route of adult males, thus ensuring receptions in the female and young peoples’ establishments take place significantly earlier in the day than previous contracts.

Shared transportation vehicles will remain an option for escort suppliers, normally for police to court movements, but design enhancements have been introduced to reduce the opportunity for visual contact and verbal harassment between categories of prisoner.

Release from custody at court process (Back to top)

The PECS supplier will submit an Authority for Release to the appropriate establishment (Sentencing Policy group guidance states the discharging establishment unless the person is off bail) and utilise the 1-hour HMIP expectation as a guideline for an initial response.

If authorisation cannot be given within the hour, a reason for delay should be communicated by the establishment to enable the prisoner to be informed.

If after an hour there has been no authorisation and no reason given for the delay, the supplier can plan to escort the prisoner to the local aligned prison utilising the contractual requirements, i.e. escorting a female prisoner within 2 hours of the case outcome and a male prisoner within 3 hours.

There should be no circumstance whereby the contractor is left supervising a prisoner, waiting for authority for release, after court closure and in all cases the contractor should escort the prisoner to the local aligned prison on the last available vehicle.

Under no circumstances can a prisoner waiting a release decision be locked out into police custody.

Returning to prison to collect property (Back to top)

There are occasions that prisoners are discharged by a prison to their aligned courts, and their personal belongings (often valuables/private cash) have not been sent with them.

This can subject the prisoner to a great deal of anxiety, especially when their house keys, bank cards and/or mobile phone remains at the prison.

Although these situations must be avoided where possible, PECS contractors will issue the affected prisoner with two travel warrants upon discharge from court, one to travel to the prison to retrieve their property, the other to reach their final destination, depending on any licence conditions set.