UK courts get Wi-Fi hotspots

Wi-Fi hotspots are to be installed in some UK courts as part of a three-year pilot scheme with BT.

The trial will include the Royal Courts of Justice, Southwark, Birmingham and Swansea Crown Courts and Winchester, Liverpool and Leeds Combined Courts where users will pay to use the service.

It is the first time public Wi-Fi access has been made available in government buildings. The BT Openzone hotspots have been installed in the public areas of court buildings and court minister Christopher Leslie said it is another step in the court modernisation programme.

"Lawyers, jurors, expert witnesses and the public will be able to access the internet or their office files while waiting to be called to court. It makes delay during proceedings more productive and less inconvenient for those attending court," he said in a statement.

Janet Paraskeva, CEO of the Law Society, said the facilities will be popular with solicitors but only if confidentiality and security is guaranteed for each user.

A spokeswoman for The Department for Constitutional Affairs said the service will be evaluated on an ongoing basis. A decision will then be made with BT over whether a UK-wide court Wi-Fi rollout would be viable, she said.

The service will obviously not be available in the court rooms themselves, which should prevent any embarrassing like the one in the Spanish Parliament last year where three MPs were fined after being caught surfing porn websites during a debate.