Publishing its ‘Progress on the courts and tribunals reform programme’ report last week, the Public Accounts Committee expressed serious concerns that HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has just £120m left of its total £1.3bn budget despite completing only 24 of 44 reform projects.
Following some timetable revisions, HMCTS now plans to deliver most reforms by March 2024. Its digital case-management system, Common Platform, is expected to complete in March 2025, more than a year behind schedule.
The committee highlighted numerous technical issues encountered during the roll-out of Common Platform, which created stress for court staff already coping with large backlogs of cases. It noted issues with some reformed services resulted in solicitors not receiving necessary notifications. Moreover, HMCTS had ‘not done enough to listen’ to court users’ concerns.
The committee’s chair, Dame Meg Hillier MP, said: ‘These are services crying out for critical reform, but frustratingly HMCTS’s attempts appear in some cases to be actively hindering its own staff’s ability to carry out their jobs.
‘HMCTS has now burnt through almost its entire budget for a programme of reform only a little over halfway complete.’
Nick Vineall KC, chair of the Bar Council, said the committee’s criticisms ‘echo the experiences we hear from barristers, especially in relation to Common Platform.
‘To date, the programme has not delivered on its promise of saving time and costs. In some cases, the introduction of Common Platform has slowed the system down, reducing court capacity.’
Law Society president Lubna Shuja said: ‘Feedback from our members has been that the speed of change and the number of changes all at once has been problematic.
‘Rolling out unfinished or untested software drives delays and costs, as we have seen with Common Platform.’
