Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Acknowledged
County Court Reform Programme over-ambitious and under-delivered on digital transformation.
Conclusion
The Reform programme was over ambitious and ultimately under-delivered. We acknowledge the diverse range of jurisdictions that fall within the County Court which may have contributed to the challenges the programme faced. However, we are not satisfied with HMCTS’ evidence: it offered weak justifications and failed to adequately acknowledge the extent to which the Reform Programme failed to deliver the necessary, and promised, digital transformation of the County Court. (Conclusion, Paragraph 126)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government accepts the committee's findings and states that HMCTS has learned lessons from the Reform programme, adjusting and improving its approach to designing future digital services through user research, co-design, piloting, and testing.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
Accept. HMCTS has reviewed the civil work that was descoped from the Reform Programme. The services that have been delivered via Reform (Online Money Claims and Damages Service) are demonstrating significant benefits for the user including much swifter access to justice with timeliness improved for all stages of a case, and these services are also helping more users settle their cases; however, we recognise that further digitalisation is required to deliver our full vision of civil justice. The Civil Auto File Share (CAFS) is a solution to modernise civil case file handling. CAFS replaces manual, paper-heavy workflows with a digital system that automates email intake, tags and stores documents centrally, and enables courts to access, manage and store files via SharePoint. It allows contact centre staff to view real-time updates from the court file, providing accurate, timely information to users. By streamlining each stage of the case journey, CAFS will save approximately a month in overall claim timeliness. This not only improves transparency and responsiveness but also reduces duplication, delays, and the need for re-submissions, delivering a more efficient and user-centred service across the Civil National Business Centre and the County Courts.
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