Conclusion 3

We are concerned that HMCTS does not yet fully understand how reforms are impacting court users, victims, or the public’s access to justice. In 2018 and 2019, 6 Progress on the courts and tribunals reform programme we raised concerns around HMCTS’s lack of understanding of the wide-ranging impacts of its reforms on those who use the courts. But HMCTS has still not shown that it is doing enough to understand this. While it does have some avenues for user feedback, these are not comprehensive and do not always capture the end-user perspective, or how reforms may impact vulnerable people. Stakeholders such as the Law Society and Bar Council told us that their members have had to deal with how some reformed services are working. This includes issues with the online portal for the family public law service, which have meant solicitors have not received the necessary notifications, as well as reports of issues with the portal causing significant delays to cases. HMCTS has made too little progress in addressing findings from its access to justice assessments, which aim to analyse how access to the hearings, decisions and sentences vary by user groups and case type. By November 2022, HMCTS had completed four access to justice assessments. In those assessments it has undertaken, HMCTS has identified concerning disparities in the way the divorce and probate services perform for different user groups, such as ethnic minorities, but it is yet to make any changes based on its findings. HMCTS plans to publish some of its findings in Autumn 2023, but it will continue to risk undermining public confidence in the fairness of the justice system if it does not increase the pace at which it takes action in response to their findings. Recommendation 3: HMCTS should outline in its Treasury Minute response: a) how it intends to obtain regular feedback on how services are impacting users and access to justice more widely; and b) dates for when it plans to publish access to justice assessme