Select committee: Justice Committee
Recommendation 40
Fifth Report - Open justice: court reporting in the digital age
Published 1 Nov 2022
Paragraph 134
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government should clarify and strengthen the governance structures on open justice. The Senior Data Governance Panel should be formalised and its powers and remit should be defined and published. It is vital that the decisions made by the Panel are as transparent as possible. The positive work of the Media Working Group should be built upon and it should be empowered to make recommendations that are then considered and decided upon by the Senior Data Governance Panel. A separate court information user group should be established to represent the interests of groups other than the media, such as court observers, NGOs, researchers and law tech that can also make recommendations that are considered and decided upon by the Senior Data Governance Panel.
From: Justice Committee, Fifth Report - Open justice: court reporting in the digital age (HC 339), paragraph 134, 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.