Recommendation 17

HM Government Accepted

The Government has taken considerable steps to improve access to court hearings and information on court proceedings. Some of this recent work is outlined below and expanded on throughout this document. Before a hearing: Court and tribunal lists were traditionally only pinned to notice boards inside court buildings. This may have worked well in a pre-digital age, when there was a greater number of dedicated court reporters who spent much of their time effectively stationed inside our court and tribunal buildings, but the public and media now expect to be able to access such information instantaneously on their phones and laptops. In July 2022, HMCTS launched the first phase of its new Court and Tribunal Hearings service (CATHs) on GOV.UK. This new online service will digitise, consolidate, and standardise hearing lists for courts and tribunals across England and Wales. CATHs will make hearing lists more accessible by simplifying and streamlining how the public and media find information on upcoming court and tribunal hearings. This new service can be freely accessed by anyone, but HMCTS will allow professional users (including accredited journalists) to subscribe and receive lists by email. This will allow these professional users to choose how to view lists and plan which hearings to attend and report on. This new service is being developed iteratively. HMCTS will continue to work with its various engagement groups to understand users’ needs, gather feedback, and develop functionality based on their needs and suggestions where feasible. During a hearing: Attendance to observe court and tribunal hearings has traditionally been in person via the provision of public galleries or allowing members of the media to sit in the well of the court (where space allows). During the pandemic we passed emergency legislation to allow for the remote observation of wholly remote proceedings so that the principle of open justice could be maintained. This worked well so the Government took the decision to expand remote observation and make it a permanent feature of the justice system. Consequently, in June 2022, we enabled provisions in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act 2022 that allow the media and public to request access to remotely observe any open court and tribunal hearing across England and Wales. Remote access is subject to judicial discretion and it must not create an unreasonable administrative burden (this means HMCTS need to have the necessary technology in place and adequate staff availability to facilitate access). At the same time, we updated GOV.UK to reflect these changes and updated guidance on how the media and public can attend court and tribunal proceedings in-person or remotely. These remote observation changes are transformative for the accessibility and transparency of our justice system. They will especially support court reporting and those who are unable or uncomfortable observing a court or tribunal hearing in person. In May 2022, HMCTS published a Reporters’ Charter which brings together and summarises practical guidance for journalists attending court and tribunal hearings. After a hearing: In April 2022, The National Archives (TNA) became responsible for the storage and publication of judgments and decisions from courts and tribunals in England and Wales. Court judgments and tribunal decisions are being made available to the public for free through the ‘Find Case Law’ (FCL) service. This online platform currently prioritises judgments and decisions from a limited number of courts and tribunals, but our longer-term ambition is to provide a complete record of judgments and decisions. Information on court proceedings and accessing court documents: Procedure rules set out what information must be made available to the public and media. Information is usually available upon request from the court or tribunal. Accredited journalists are, however, proactively provided with additional information that helps them in their work. For example, in magistrates’ courts lists are circulated and contain more detail than would be widely available to the public. The HMCTS’ Data Access Panel is increasing access to justice data. In particular, the Panel is supporting research proposals and its position is to approve wherever possible all research projects which further the MoJ’s Areas of Research Interest, in particular the important Data First and Better Outcomes through Linking Data (BOLD) initiatives. The Panel is also supportive of proposals exploring machine learning and other novel methods to apply quantitative research methods to information which, to date, has not been compiled and approved for such uses. This work will support academic research and the development and evaluation of policy and services. Call for evidence: In 2023, the MoJ will launch a wide-ranging call for evidence exploring the themes of open justice, access to information and data, and transparency across our courts and