Select committee: Justice Committee
Conclusion 29
Fifth Report - Open justice: court reporting in the digital age
Published 1 Nov 2022
Paragraph 98
Addressed to Ministry of Justice
Justice Committee Open justice: court reporting in the digital age All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We are concerned over whether the Ministry of Justice has allocated sufficient funding to ensure that the court reform programme can overcome some of the barriers to public and media access to information on courts. We ask the Government to provide a status update on any ongoing projects that are designed to enhance open justice, outlining how much funding has been allocated to deliver them and providing a date by which they will be completed.
From: Justice Committee, Fifth Report - Open justice: court reporting in the digital age (HC 339), paragraph 98, 1 November 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 16 January 2023 (deadline 1 January 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government states that it "remains committed to upholding the principle of open justice" and responds to the Committee's recommendations by citing existing and planned work, a 2023 call for evidence, and some stated reasons for not taking forward certain recommendations.
- On legislating for open justice, the Government says it sees "no clear need to legislate in this area", citing common law, Article 6 ECHR and the flexibility this gives the judiciary.
- On re-establishing a courts' inspectorate, it says "the case for re-establishing a courts' inspectorate is therefore not clear", citing existing audit, management information and parliamentary scrutiny.
- It commits that "in 2023" it will develop and publish a charter for members of the public summarising existing rules on access to hearings and information. It says the charter would not create new rights.
- On a PACER-style document portal, it states "we do not, at this stage, have plans" to create one, citing resources, and says it plans to explore access to court documents in a call for evidence launching in 2023.