Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Accepted
HMCTS reforms' impact on vulnerable users' access to justice remains inadequately understood.
Recommendation
HMCTS’s reforms are wide-ranging and have the potential to impact access to justice for a range of users, including vulnerable people. In both 2018 and 2019, we raised concerns that HMCTS had not sufficiently demonstrated that it understood how reforms would impact access to the justice system or the people using it, and that it had not adequately considered how reforms already introduced, such as court closures, had impacted access to the justice system, particularly for vulnerable users. In our 2019 report we recommended 21 Qq 66–68 22 Qq 29 23 Qq 29, 65 24 Qq 27–29, 56–57, 65, 108; C&AG’s Report, paras 2.20–2.21 25 CPR0003 The Law Society submission, 30 March 2023, para 5 26 Qq 27, 63–65, 110 27 Qq 27, 32–34 28 Qq 63, 67–69, 108; C&AG’s Report, para 2.21 Progress on the courts and tribunals reform programme 13 that HMCTS should set out what it would do to make sure that the needs of vulnerable users are considered in future closure decisions and to put in place measures to compensate for any apparent access difficulties, such as providing taxi vouchers in advance.29 In its Treasury Minute response, HMCTS agreed to write to us in June 2020 with additional details on how the needs of vulnerable users were considered and what future measures would be put in place to ensure that HMCTS can identify the most appropriate measures to enable access to justice.30
Government Response Summary
The government states HMCTS already uses feedback and commits to publishing four Access to Justice assessments in autumn 2023, with further publications in 2024-2025, and is conducting an overarching evaluation focused on vulnerable users.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 3.2 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. 3.3 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.