Recommendation 11

Problems have also been caused by court staff having had to use a version of common platform that was not sufficiently developed, which has affected justice outcomes and burdened courts. For example, between August 2021 and March 2022, HMCTS had to pause the rollout to address performance issues including system outages, which affected the live running and stability of the service. Users told the National Audit Office that issues with the system can lead to delayed court processes when it is slow or not responding.19 However, HMCTS told us that problems with the speed and stability of common platform existed in the early stages of the rollout and were no longer an issue of “primary concern”.20 14 Committee of Public Accounts, Transforming Courts and Tribunals: progress review, Second Report of Session 2019, HC 27, 5 November 2019 15 HM Treasury, Treasury Minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the One Hundred and Twelfth to One Hundred and Nineteenth reports from Session 2017–19 and the First and Second reports from Session 2019, CP 201, January 2020 16 CPR0002, Written evidence submitted by The Bar Council, 30 March 2023, para1 17 CPR0002, Written evidence submitted by The Bar Council, 30 March 2023, paras 1, 3, 7, 13 18 Qq 74–79 19 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.9–2.10, 2.18, Figure 7, Figure 8 20 Q 28 12 Progress on the courts and tribunals reform programme