Ms Angela Denning:

We took a risk-assessed view of everything and we are continually looking at those assessments and renewing and reviewing them. The committee will remember that in March 2020 the courts were one of the few public services that were fully open to the public and continued to deliver services. Our aim was to provide one trial centre for Circuit Criminal Court trials in every circuit, and in most circuits we provided two. We kept trials going in every building that was suitable and we got external trial venues up and running as quickly as we could to facilitate that. I am fully aware it was inconvenient for people and required long distances, but the other option was that persons in custody could not get their trials dealt with and so forth. It is a fine balance that had to be struck.