Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 26
Sixty-First Report - Progress on the courts and tribunals reform programme
Published 30 Jun 2023
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Court Reform Programme: progress review All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We asked the Ministry and HMCTS whether they have identified lessons from the programme they can take forward into other major projects. They acknowledged that there were several lessons that they have identified from the programme so far that they plan to take forward.53 However, the Ministry and HMCTS have similarly given us assurances that they have learnt lessons from both reform and other major programmes in the past. For example, in 2018, the Ministry told us that it had learnt lessons from delivering reform programmes to rehabilitation of offenders and its electronic monitoring system. The Ministry explained at the time that it considered that these programmes took too long, were over-complex and difficult.54 In particular, the Ministry’s timetable for delivering ambitious reforms to rehabilitation was too compressed which in turn created an unacceptable level of risk to delivery.55 The Ministry also asserted that the court reform programme would not have the same fate as its other large transformation programmes as the reforms were more modular which reduced interdependencies between projects and that a mistake or missed milestone would not threaten the rest of the programme.56 However, seven years into the programme, HMCTS and the Ministry do not seem to have taken lessons on board. For example, HMCTS has had to extend its timetable for a third time and to look again at its approach to rolling out common platform.57
From: Public Accounts Committee, Sixty-First Report - Progress on the courts and tribunals reform programme (HC 1002), 30 June 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 24 September 2023 (deadline 30 August 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the six conclusions, describing five as "Recommendation implemented" and one, on assessing the full cost of the programme, with a target implementation date of December 2023.
- On assurance of plans, the response says the programme is "conducting ongoing reviews of plans", overseen by programme boards and a portfolio board, with updated confidence assessments reported against each portfolio-level milestone.
- On access to justice, it commits to publishing four completed assessments in autumn 2023, with further publications "in 2024 and into 2025". Where impacts are identified, it will do further work and, "where appropriate", implement a service fix.
- On full costs, the government will respond within the six-month deadline, considering the proposed inclusions "where they are within the scope of the programme". It adds that in some cases it will be necessary to rely on estimates.
- On savings, it says delay will mean £50 million fewer recurring annual net savings by the end of 2025-26. The full £227 million is "still expected" a year later than originally expected, by the end of 2026-27.