Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

The idea of closing number of court buildings – to ‘rationalise the estate’ – have been around for some time. The Coalition Government has taken advantage of the need to cut public expenditure as the basis for ordering the closure of a significant number of court buildings that received relative little use. Nearly 150 of the 530 buildings currently used by the Court Service will be closed.
Of course, there will be much local sadness at the loss of some of these buildings. But it is hard to argue that under-used building should be retained.
Nevertheless, it is important that this closure programme does not lead to increase difficulty in accessing court buildings. Greater use of modern communication technologies should do much to prevent major access problems.

The press announcement can be found at http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/newsrelease141210a.htm