Recommendation 17

Through its reforms, HMCTS aims to improve access to justice for service users. But the National Audit Office found that it has made little progress in responding to findings from its access to justice assessments which have identified disparities in the way that some reformed services work for different user groups. Within the programme, each reformed service must undergo an access to justice assessment, which aims to analyse how access to hearings, decisions and sentences vary by user groups and case type. HMCTS recognised the importance of these assessments and told us that access to justice was “at the heart of the programme”.32 By November 2022 it had completed assessments for four of its services which had identified issues for some user groups. For example, its assessments of probate and divorce services found that cases from ethnic minority users took longer to resolve. As at November 2022, HMCTS had not yet made any changes to address these findings.33