Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Accepted
Little progress made addressing identified access to justice disparities for different user groups.
Conclusion
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
Government Response Summary
The government states it will publish completed access to justice assessments in autumn 2023 and subsequent years. Where impacts are identified, it commits to further investigative work to understand causes and implement appropriate service fixes, which will then be monitored.
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.