Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Accepted
Outline how to obtain regular feedback on service impact and publish assessment dates
Conclusion
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
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states it already uses various methods like surveys, contact centres, and analytics to obtain user feedback, which informs service development. It commits to publishing four Access to Justice assessments in Autumn 2023, with further publications in 2024 and 2025, and is conducting an overarching evaluation of the Reform programme.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented HMCTS already obtains and uses regular feedback on how services are impacting users, for instance, through surveys embedded throughout the digital application process and after submission, through contact with users via contact centres and the web chat facility. HMCTS monitors this and other user related data including Google analytics, speech analytics, complaints, user satisfaction and access to justice metrics. All this data is fed through to service development and improvement and, as necessary, the department also conducts new research with users to get even more targeted feedback on specific areas. Four completed Access to Justice assessments will be published in the autumn 2023. Further publications will follow in 2024 and into 2025 as services continue to be rolled out and assessments carried out. The department will then publish them as summary reports on completion. Where impacts are identified, the department will complete further investigative work to understand the underlying cause(s) and, where appropriate, implement a service fix which will be then monitored to ensure improvements are made. In addition to the assessments, the department is conducting an overarching evaluation of the Reform programme which is particularly focussed on access to justice and vulnerable users. An update to the evaluation plans HMCTS Reform MOJ Evaluation: Progress Report was published on Gov.UK in March 2023.