Civil way: 28 February 2025

REFRESHING THE CPR

I am worried. Are members of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee receiving sufficient sustenance? According to its recently published annual report for 2023–24, the Ministry of Justice provides them with refreshments when meetings are held in person but in lieu of them making a subsistence claim. There were seven in-person meetings for the report year and the cost of refreshments came to £824, which averaged out at around £118 a meeting. That would allow, say, £9 per head. However, my suspicion is that non-member attendees, principally civil servants, may also have been tucking in, which would reduce the allowance to £4 per head. If I can get into the open meeting scheduled for May 2025, I will report back on who is scoffing what. After all, this is the age of transparency, and information on judicial eating habits should be available to the public. Too much processed food could lead