Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 26
26
Accepted
National Archives Find Case Law Service should be first step for judgment accessibility
Recommendation
We welcome the establishment of the National Archives Find Case Law Service. However, this service should represent the first step in improving the public accessibility of judgments. (Paragraph 93) 54 Open justice: court reporting in the digital age
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the Find Case Law service is in early stages with incremental improvements underway and shares the ambition for greater access to judgments. It will use a 2023 call for evidence to gauge public views on expanding the service, with a long-term goal of providing a complete record.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The recently launched FCL service provides free public access to court judgments and tribunal decisions once they have been handed down and released for publication by the court/tribunal. The service is operated, funded, and being developed by TNA, working with the MoJ, HMCTS, and Judicial Office. As of December 2022, over 2,700 judgments have been published since launch in April 2022. The service is currently in the early stages of development and incremental improvements are being made in response to user testing and feedback. We share the ambition to ensure greater equality in access to judgments and decisions, which are a product of the publicly funded justice system. We will use the call for evidence in 2023 to gauge public views on expanding the service further. FCL 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.