HMCTS Pilots Justice Transcribe AI to Cut Court Transcript Costs for Victims
TL;DR: HM Courts & Tribunals Service has launched a study into whether the Ministry of Justice’s in-house AI, Justice Transcribe, can meet accuracy standards for Crown Court transcripts at lower cost than contracted providers. Free sentencing-remark transcripts for victims go live from spring 2027.
Current Crown Court transcripts are produced by external suppliers, with fees running into hundreds or thousands of pounds — a barrier that has kept many victims from accessing records of their own cases. The study sits alongside the Victims and Courts Bill and the Courts and Tribunals Bill currently in Parliament.
Context and Background
Justice Transcribe is one of the more concrete examples of a UK central-government department building AI in-house rather than buying it. The MoJ stake in the tool runs deeper than procurement: the study framing makes explicit that Justice Transcribe will be benchmarked against commercial transcription vendors on accuracy and cost, with findings feeding “nationwide plans to upgrade, modernise and open up the court system”.
The pattern mirrors the DfT’s Consultation Analysis Tool announced on the same day — UK departments increasingly favour bespoke AI systems, trained and operated on government data, over off-the-shelf commercial tools for sensitive workflows. For justice specifically, that choice reduces data-residency and sensitivity questions that external transcribers would raise for in-camera or protected-witness material.
Minister for Courts and Legal Services Sarah Sackman KC framed the pilot around victim experience: “Victims show immense courage in coming to court… it is only right they process what happened in their case in their own time and on their own terms.” Charlotte Schreurs, whose Open Justice For All campaign has long pushed for accessible transcripts, welcomed the move.
For legal-services businesses, the procurement signal is specific. Transcription contracts across Crown Court proceedings are substantial; a successful Justice Transcribe rollout would reduce that spend. Firms serving MoJ on court-technology contracts should watch the study’s accuracy-benchmark results carefully.
Looking Forward
The free-transcripts pledge gives the pilot a hard 2027 delivery date. Between now and then, watch for the accuracy threshold Justice Transcribe is expected to meet — likely benchmarked against existing contracted-provider standards — and whether the scope expands beyond sentencing remarks to full trial transcripts in a second phase.