GovWire

Since 2016 weve been modernising our justice system to make it more straightforward, accessible and efficient.

Our ambitious programme is designed to improve courts and tribunals for both those who use them and for those working in them.

Our vision for reform and our modernised services were critical to our response during the pandemic. They enabled us to continue to provide access to justice to those who needed it.

What weve achieved

Reformed projects are having a significant impact on those who need our justice system, as well as helping the most vulnerable in our society. Theres been widespread uptake. Weve received almost 2 million digitally submitted cases to our reformed services. These include:

• immigration and asylum
• divorce
• probate
• money claims
• low-level criminal cases using the Single Justice Procedure
• government benefit appeals
• family public law cases

As of 23 February 2023, some of the biggest achievements delivered through the HMCTS Reform Programme include:

• more than 400,000 Online Civil Money Claims processed since their introduction in March 2018 with a 96% user satisfaction rating for the service
• by December 2022 digital uptake had increased to 80% of all probate applications received online with 94% of personal applicants rating the service good or very good
• less than 1% of online divorce applications returned due to user error, compared to 40% with the original, paper-based system
• Common Platform is live in 173 Crown and magistrates courts, meaning 76% of all criminal courts are managing cases on the system. Over 500,000 hearings have now been managed on Common Platform across the criminal courts
• over 70% of all courtrooms including over 90% of Crown courtrooms can allow parties in a case to join hearings remotely, where deemed appropriate by the judiciary
• between 1 January 2022 and 30 September 2022, over 530,000 low-level criminal cases were completed through the Single Justice Procedure
• 5 centralised administrative and user contact centres (Courts and Tribunals Service Centres) opened
• a new digital tool for listing court and tribunal hearings has been developed and is already being used by all our civil and family courts, handling 50,000 cases each week
• a digital service has been delivered to support local authority child welfare cases which has already been used over 12,000 times
• the Single Justice Service has an 88% user satisfaction rate
• making sure our reformed services are being developedin Welsh for those court and tribunal users who wish to interact with us in Welsh

Reform projects

Fact sheets provide the latest information on our reformed projects in each jurisdiction:

• HMCTS Reform: Civil fact sheets
• HMCTS Reform: Crime fact sheets
• HMCTS Reform: Family fact sheets
• HMCTS Reform: Tribunals fact sheets
• HMCTS Reform: Infrastructure and enabling services fact sheets

But theres still more work to do.

What were doing next

As we move into the final phase of delivery, weve adjusted certain elements of the reform programme. Our revised schedule minimises overlap and allows more preparation time.

We have the full support of the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals in making these adjustments.

Well develop and extend projects such as Common Platform and the Single Justice Service.

Well complete final phases of others, such as the Social Security and Child Support and Immigration and Asylum Chamber projects.

Well continue to work on a range of enabling projects including the Video Hearings Service and a tool for scheduling and listing cases.

Throughout the reform programme, weve updated andengaged with our stakeholders, including professional and public user groups. Well continue to work with them as well as gather feedback from the people they represent.

Keep up to date

Stay up to date with progress on reform by:

• signing up to our email alerts, including monthly newsletters about our progress
• joining one of our events where we explain changes and gather views and feedback
• following our Inside HMCTS blog
• following our social media channels - HMCTS Youtube, Twitter: @HMCTSgovuk, HMCTS LinkedIn and Facebook: HM Courts & Tribunals Service