Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 23
23
HMCTS repeatedly reduces expected savings from courts and tribunals reform programme.
Conclusion
HMCTS has reduced the savings it expected to achieve from the programme several times. When we last reported on the programme in 2019, HMCTS expected to save £244 million a year from 2024–25 through its reforms and claimed that it had saved £133 million in total so far.47 Since then, the programme’s expected savings have decreased. The National Audit Office found that in its most recent estimate, HMCTS predicted £220 million in yearly savings from 2025–26. It expected the programme to save £2 billion over its lifetime (to 2029–30), £310 million (13%) less than the £2.3 billion forecast in 2019. However, this is likely to have decreased further as HMCTS is yet to set out how pausing work on some its projects as part of its recent programme reset will impact savings.48
Government Response
A response document is linked to this report, dated 24 September 2023. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document ↗