Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Rejected
Paragraph: 72
Establish streamlined digital portal for court document and reporting restriction access.
Recommendation
The Government and HMCTS should establish a streamlined process for accessing court documents, including courts lists, using a digital portal modelled on Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) in the United States. This should also be used to inform the media of reporting restrictions, including automatic restrictions and notice of applications for reporting restrictions.
Government Response Summary
The government rejected establishing a digital portal for all court documents modelled on PACER due to resource and suitability concerns, but plans to explore access to case files in a call for evidence in 2023.
Paragraph Reference:
72
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
69. As outlined earlier in our response, we have well-developed plans to improve access to court lists and judgments. While some court documents are already published, we do not, at this stage, have plans to create a digital portal for access to all court documents. There is a large variety and volume of documents and many, either in part or whole, are not suitable for release. The creation of a portal would require considerable resources which is not within the scope of the HMCTS reform programme. The release of different court documents is governed by a range of rules. Requests for documents are therefore considered by staff (and where necessary the judiciary) on a case-by-case basis. 70. However, we plan to explore the theme of access to case files and other court documents in the aforementioned call for evidence which we plan to launch in 2023. We will carefully consider the responses to the call for evidence, alongside the conclusions and recommendations in the JSC’s open justice report, before making any future decisions.