MoJ explores AI for criminal court transcripts

The UK government is actively examining the use of AI to produce official transcripts of criminal court proceedings , but ministers have stressed that any technology must meet the high standards currently achieved by human professionals.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is considering introducing AI-driven transcription services in the Crown Court to help reduce costs, according to Sarah Sackman, the minister responsible for court reform, AI, and digitisation.

Sackman, responding to a parliamentary question from MP David Davis, emphasised that accuracy remains the top priority. She explained that transcripts must be of an extremely high standard to protect the interests of parties, witnesses, and victims.

At present, transcription is delivered manually by third-party suppliers who are contractually required to achieve 99.5% accuracy.

AI-based solutions would need to meet a similar threshold before being adopted. Sackman added that while the MoJ is actively exploring the technology, reducing costs cannot come at the expense of reliability.

In 2023, the Ministry established a four-year, £20 million framework agreement for court reporting and transcription services.

Eight suppliers, including Appen, Epiq, and Opus 2, are providing services across three categories: remote transcription from recordings, on-site transcription refined into final documents, and real-time transcription for instant use.

Although AI could eventually transform how transcripts are created, any new systems will need to prove they can match the performance and accuracy of human transcribers before replacing existing methods.

Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot !