The courts service has been engaged in a major transformation project for the past nine years and, during the final months of delivery, further reductions in scope have been made
After further scaling back the scope of its near-£3bn long-term reform programme, HM Courts and Tribunals Service is to seek “further funding” to digitise parts of the civil justice system that will remain paper-based for “a large volume of cases”.
The HMCTS Reform Programme began work in 2016 with the ambition of “providing new, more accessible digital services across the majority of case types in courts and tribunals, delivering financial and wider benefits”.
In a letter updating parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on “the final delivery phase” of the scheme, which is due to complete in a month’s time, the courts service chief executive Nick Goodwin acknowledged that the project has “proved challenging to deliver… [and] has faced delays and reductions in scope”.
The final year of implementation has seen further “adjustments”, including in the area of civil justice where it has now been determined that “priority will be given to completing end-to-end journeys for simple cases up to £25k for litigants in person and for all values of claim for legally represented users”.
Goodwin said that: “Our plans no longer include bulk claims, warrants of control, damages claims for litigants in person, multi-party claims involving unrepresented users, and some supporting features including bulk scanning of paper applications.”
The chief executive told MPs that this change in scope are intended to “prioritise the functionality which will digitise the highest volume of cases, driving the greatest user and financial benefits… [and] will mean digitising over half of defended money and damages cases from issue to completion in the County Court”.
Related content
- Review of courts system asked to consider AI as part of ‘once-in-a-generation reform’
- MoJ records £5.6m loss after scrapping Common Platform functionality
- Courts service signs £30m deal for roving digital ‘squads’ to support reform programme
He added: “However, it will leave many civil cases not yet being delivered digitally and significant ‘dual-running’ of new systems alongside old. The de-scoping of bulk claims means that a large volume of cases issued through this service will continue to be managed on paper, which means more complexity for staff and judges, and a less consistent service for users.”
With the reform scheme due to wrap up in the next few weeks, the courts service “will continue to work to identify further funding to digitise the civil jurisdiction and complete digitisation of County Court processes, building on the strong platform we have already delivered”.
In the nine years since delivery of the programme started, costs have risen from £1.6bn to £2.8bn, while the completion date has been pushed back from 2022 to 2025.
Other changes made to the programme during its closing months including streamlining work on the criminal justice elements so that “the remaining time and resources will focus on existing functionality by fixing priority defects and progressing the most impactful changes”.
For the new courts management IT system, “the existing scheduling and listing capability in Common Platform will be developed, rather than proceeding with a full integration of a new tool, ListAssist”.
While work on the establishment of a new citywide London Tribunal Centre “is now removed from the programme, but will continue to deliver from other funding sources”, Goodwin said.
The CEO added that, while the anticipated net monetary upside of the project has reduced from £2bn to £1.5bn over time, the scheme “expects to deliver significant financial benefits, including a reduced workforce through greater digital automation, property savings and savings from decommissioning old IT systems”, he added.
“While the programme is ending, our goal is to continue to reform the justice system using technology wherever we can to drive improved services for those who need them,” Goodwin said.
