Lammy's Ministry of Justice under fire over £3.6million spend on faulty video system
The Ministry of Justice is said to have wasted millions of pounds of taxpayer money amid proposals to scrap jury trials in many cases
Justice Secretary David Lammy is facing criticism over a Department for Justice decision to spend millions of pounds on a video system that never worked.
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Lammy's department is said to have wasted millions of pounds of taxpayer money after paying for and implementing the failed video system.
Revealed in the Ministry of Justice’s accounts, department figures suggested losses totalling £71million in 2024-25, with the figures including millions spent within HM Courts & Tribunals Service.
That £71m figure is more than double the £33.8m reported during the 2023-2024 period.
The Videos Hearing Service (VHS) was set to allow lawyers to use what it described as ‘virtual consultation rooms’ to speak with clients.
It's a system that, despite being ideally designed for the demands of the pandemic, was not deemed ready for rollout when Covid hit in 2019.
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It led to an alternate system dubbed the Cloud Video Platform to be rolled out in its place.
Subsequent years of development saw the VHS system poised for a national rollout last autumn, but it's been revealed the system had to be taken offline last summer over 'unfixable' technical issues.
In May this year, the project was scrapped completely.
Financial specifics detailed in the annual report reveal: "Following a formal approval process in May 2025 a decision was made to cease the continuation and development of a specific video hearing project in HMCTS due to unresolved technical issues.
"This has resulted in a constructive loss of £3,632,609."
It comes as the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: "Instead of depriving British citizens of ancient liberties, Calamity Lammy should get his own department in order. He is casting aside 800 years of jury trials because of administrative failure."
The financial outgoings come as the government insisted that victims will be placed "front and centre" in justice reforms that could see jury trials scrapped in some cases.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has insisted the reforms would speed up justice and save victims from "years of torment and delay", with details to be revealed this week.