The Crown Court (Recording and Broadcasting) Order 2020 is a statutory instrument of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

. The order allows for the filming of the sentencing phase of trials held at the

Crown Court The Crown Court is the criminal trial court, court of first instance in England and Wales responsible for hearing all indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals of the decisions of magistrates' courts. It is ...

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

. The filming of criminal proceedings was given approval in 2020, but implementation was delayed until 2022 because of the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Background

The recording of sound or images in English courts had been banned since 1925. In 2013, it was relaxed and certain Court of Appeal cases were allowed to be recorded or filmed. Since 2018, some cases had been streamed online. Several media organisations, including

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

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and

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...

had campaigned to have the law relaxed for over 20 years. A representative from the Ministry of Justice said they hoped a public assessment of judge's decisions would allow the public to understand them in more depth. However, some barristers raised concerns that this could allow the court to become a "spectator sport". The act was first used for the

sentencing of Ben Oliver The sentencing of Ben Oliver, a 25-year-old man convicted of the manslaughter of his grandfather, was the culmination of a Crown Court case in England and Wales, and the sentencing was the first criminal court proceeding in England and Wales to be ...

for manslaughter in June 2022.

Applicable cases

The act only allows filming and broadcasting of the sentencing in a court case. It is still illegal to film or broadcast any other part of the case, including testimonies by witnesses, victims or jurors.

References

2020 in British law 2022 in British law Statutory instruments of the United Kingdom 2022 in British television {{UK-law-stub