THE Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland saw two sides of the criminal justice system on a visit to Winchester.

Mr Buckland was joined by local MP Steve Brine to visit the Law Courts and then a short trip up Romsey Road to the prison.

At Winchester Crown Court where they met members of the criminal and civil bar, hosted by Keith Cutler who has been the Resident Judge of Winchester and Salisbury since 2009.

The Lord Chancellor said: “I wanted to visit to see Keith before his retirement early in the New Year and to see how the facilities at Winchester had been adapted to be Covid compliant, to hear more detail about the proposed Nightingale court at the Guildhall and to thank judges and staff for their incredible work in keeping the system going through the crisis.”

The two MPs went on to HMP/YOI Winchester where they met Deputy Governor, Susie Richardson, and members of the senior team including Winchester’s Independent Monitoring Board chairman Angus Somerville.

Mr Buckland, who was making his first prison visit since the end of lockdown, said: “HMP Winchester has been on my wish list for some time having discussed it regularly with Steve Brine. We’re both really keen to see things improve.”

Mr Brine MP added; “It was good to have our Lord Chancellor here who remains a firm supporter of Winchester as the beating heart of the Western Circuit.

“After many years of really poor IMB, and Prison Inspectorate reports, it was also important for Robert to hear about the turnaround progress being made at Winchester Prison.”