THE BRITISH WAY IS BEST; ISN`T IT?

We are living in an age where from the innocuous to the prestigious on line connection is not just a requirement it is an expectation: from communication with His Majesty`s Revenue and Customs Service to many if not most medical services; from banking  to the Scottish Charity Regulator without a customer being on line by a fixed terminal or mobile facility communication is almost intolerable if not impossible.  But then we have the Ministry of Justice.  I was spared the issue of digital only benches by my retirement shortly before their introduction.  In difficult cases of alleged non receipt of court documents by a defendant we interrogated said defendant at length in our attempt to assess the credibility of his/her excuse.  Even in these distant days questions were asked as to why e mail or text communication from court to defendant was categorically not an option.  

Since the lamentous installation of the Single Justice Procedure this head in the sand approach surely must be coming to an end even for the ostriches at Petty France.   Latest figures available show that around  two thirds of those who were summonsed under the SJP did not submit a plea and only 3% pleaded not guilty thus enabling them to proceed to trial at an open court before three real magistrates or a District Judge (MC). Around 30% pleaded guilty. For those charged with speeding as recorded by a camera device about half did not submit a plea. Amongst those was the Archbishop of Canterbury last October.  A brief account of the process is as follows:when a car has been caught speeding either by fixed position safety camera or mobile hand-held device a NIP and Section 172 notice will be mailed to the address the car is registered at within 14 days of the offence being recorded. Reply must be made using the Section 172 notice to notify the authorities who was driving the car at the time of the offence and the fine paid within 28 days. A summons is sent by post to appear in court if these actions are not taken.  This is now usually a SJP court. It seems that the lordly archbishop and/or his staff were not in receipt of the appropriate paper trail.  His subsequent conviction was enacted in a secret court by a single JP aided by a legal advisor. The financial penalty was harsher than it would otherwise have been if he had made the choice, had it been given, of pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity.  For him and others the additional costs were of no hardship but for many with lower incomes such impositions would have and do entail financial sacrifice.  With primary school children increasingly in possession of a smartphone and its use ubiquitous amongst the general population more use of such facility surely must be a priority for such a high volume activity as low level offences?  In 2021, 98 percent of Britons aged between 16 and 24 owned a smartphone as did 69 percent of those over 65 years old.  And yet the MOJ still relies on analogue technology; i.e. a postal service which is deteriorating before our very eyes. 

A cynic might think that the avoidance of e mail and text in such circumstances is a deliberate ploy to ensure the conviction rate at SJP courts is as high as possible but that would not be the British way and we all know the British way is best, isn`t it?