Operation Early Dawn – information – 15.05.24

The government has put Operation Early Dawn into practice.

The Bar Council received the following briefing from the MoJ:

Operation Early Dawn will be in place throughout England from Wednesday 15th May, as a result of the prison population in police cells reaching acute level and prisoner transport service being unable to cope with the level of demand.
It will not apply in Wales.
It will affect the flow of prisoners from police cells to mags courts. There will be a triage process each morning to determine which prisoner can get to which court. Higher risk individuals will be prioritised so some prisoners might not be delivered to court.
The impact for barristers is that cases might be pushed because the prisoner cannot get to court. Unfortunately, there is unlikely to be any notice given because of the same day decision making process.
The news reports say that this will be in place for one week. The situation will be reassessed several times a day and Operation Early Dawn will be kept in place until the situation is no longer acute.

Further information is expected from the MoJ and will be published once received.

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