Night court plan scaled down

Plans to pilot late-night and weekend opening at magistrates courts in London and Manchester have been scaled down.

The Lord Chancellor's Department hoped the court in Manchester could open from 1000 to 2200 GMT, while in London the adult court might sit until midnight, and the youth court until 2200 GMT.

Both would have operated six days a week in the hope of speeding up justice and providing swifter punishment to people offending on Friday and Saturday nights.

But the American-style plan brought opposition from solicitors and the Prison Service.

Revised plans

Lucy Milmo, a press officer for the Lord Chancellor's department, told BBC News Online: "We have always said this was a pilot, and the aim was to test whether extended court hours would help.

"The prison service have been consulted at all times at a local and a national level."

Critics of the plans said prison reception wings could not open in the evenings without compromising security, and drunken defendants would be unfit to plead at weekends.

Ms Milmo added: "The Manchester pilot will now mean the court opening until 2000 GMT on Tuesday and Thursday to allow witnesses who would otherwise have to take time off work to come along more easily.

"It will also be starting up at 0900 GMT, not 1000 GMT, on all weekdays to deal with people who have been arrested overnight.

"The London pilot is still to be agreed, but we expect it will test putting people through the system faster.

"We are now looking at the London pilot operating until midnight on Friday and Saturday instead of 1700 GMT as it does at the moment."