Cost of court transcripts

That this House believes that justice should be accessible and transparent; notes that the cost of court transcripts is a barrier to justice for many victims, most of whom do not attend trial; further notes that victims have been quoted up to £22,000 to obtain court transcripts; acknowledges that a transcript of court proceedings can be beneficial to a victim’s recovery and understanding; welcomes the commitment from the Scottish Government to implement a pilot scheme to waive court transcript fees for victims of rape and sexual offences; urges the Ministry of Justice to explore how technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and captioning software could be utilised to reduce costs; and calls on the Government to take steps to improve access to justice by enabling all victims to request a transcript of court proceedings free of charge.