Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Sixty-First Report - Progress on the courts and tribunals reform programme
Public Accounts Committee
HC 1002
Published 30 June 2023
Recommendations
2
Accepted
Set out improved approach for staff and stakeholder engagement and transparency
Recommendation
HMCTS’s failure to engage sufficiently with staff and stakeholders throughout the common platform rollout has increased the burden on courts and staff already under significant pressure. When we last reported on the programme, HMCTS assured us that it intended to …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states it has already implemented the recommendation by overhauling its staff feedback process, introducing specific digital forms, dedicated sponsors, transparent data, regular updates, and increasing staff and stakeholder involvement in prioritising and resolving issues. It also detailed support frameworks for new functionality.
HM Treasury
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5
Accepted
Set out impact of recent plan changes on expected savings and monitor service efficiency.
Recommendation
HMCTS has not specified how its recent changes to the programme will impact the savings promised, nor can it demonstrate whether reformed services are on track to deliver the required efficiencies. In 2019, HMCTS expected the programme to save £244 …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees and details that while savings will be delivered later, the full £227 million annual net savings are still expected by 2026-27, with a £50 million reduction by 2025-26. It further explains its methodology for monitoring efficiency through quarterly updated unit costs across 15 services, with oversight from finance committees and the board.
HM Treasury
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10
Accepted
HMCTS acknowledged common platform issues for barristers but lacked direct user research engagement.
Recommendation
We asked HMCTS how much it had engaged with the Bar Council on common platform. I t told us it has spoken with them “a good deal” and that it received feedback from barristers regularly. We also asked whether HMCTS …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees the recommendation is implemented, detailing how the Crime Programme overhauled staff feedback processes and increased engagement with user focus groups and partners, including specific drop-in sessions for defence practitioners.
HM Treasury
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12
Accepted
Staff satisfaction with common platform remains low despite HMCTS reported improvements.
Recommendation
Staff satisfaction scores for common platform remain low. HMCTS told us that 58% of users reported that they were satisfied with the system, up from 22% in November.21 We asked HMCTS whether there should have been better engagement with those …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees the recommendation for better engagement is implemented, detailing how the Crime Programme overhauled staff feedback processes and increased engagement with user focus groups and partners, including specific drop-in sessions for defence practitioners.
HM Treasury
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14
Accepted
HMCTS acknowledges Common Platform issues caused staff stress, needing improved user engagement.
Recommendation
HMCTS accepted that issues with common platform had caused significant stress for court staff, such as legal advisors, already under pressure to reduce COVID-19 backlogs.26 Despite this, it assured us that it was committed to engaging with users, but it …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees the recommendation for improving user engagement and satisfaction is implemented, outlining how the Crime Programme overhauled feedback processes and increased engagement with users and partners, including specific drop-in sessions for defence practitioners.
HM Treasury
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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 …
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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.
HM Treasury
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20
Accepted
Financial implications and "cost-shunting" across the wider justice system remain unclear.
Recommendation
In our examination of the programme in 2018, we concluded that the Ministry of Justice did not understand the financial implications of the planned changes on the wider justice system. We warned that some of the changes, such as the …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and commits to responding by December 2023, outlining how it will assess the full cost of the programme, though some elements may rely on estimates.
HM Treasury
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21
Accepted
Reported programme costs may not capture full expenditure across the wider justice system.
Recommendation
Despite our earlier concerns, the National Audit Office found that the programme costs still may not capture the full costs of reforming the courts and tribunals. This is partly because when reporting the costs of the programme, HMCTS does not …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and commits to responding by December 2023, outlining how it will assess the full cost of the programme, though some elements may rely on estimates.
HM Treasury
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22
Accepted
Paused projects and post-completion service fixes require funding beyond the core reform budget.
Recommendation
The funding allocated to the programme will also no longer cover several projects that HMCTS has paused as part of its programme reset: these relate to its civil possession service, family adoption and all special tribunals with the exception of …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation regarding assessing full programme costs and commits to responding by December 2023 with its plan, acknowledging that some costs may require estimates.
HM Treasury
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24
Accepted
HMCTS approach to measuring reform benefits requires further refinement.
Recommendation
In 2019, we concluded that HMCTS could not demonstrate whether claimed savings were attributable to the reforms and so taxpayers could not be confident they were getting what was promised. We recommended that HMCTS should set out how it intended …
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Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation and states that HMCTS has developed unit costs for 15 major services, which are updated quarterly and routinely monitored by its Finance and Performance Committee and board. They anticipate achieving £227 million in recurring annual net savings by the end of 2026-27.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (17)
3
Conclusion
Accepted
We are concerned that HMCTS does not yet fully understand how reforms are impacting court users, victims, or the public’s access to justice. In 2018 and 2019, 6 Progress on the courts and tribunals reform programme we raised concerns around HMCTS’s lack of understanding of the wide-ranging impacts of its …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states it already uses various methods like surveys, contact centres, and analytics to obtain user feedback, which informs service development. It commits to publishing four Access to Justice assessments in Autumn 2023, with further publications in 2024 and 2025, and is conducting an overarching evaluation of the Reform programme.
4
Conclusion
Acknowledged
HMCTS and the Ministry cannot fully assess whether the reforms have provided value for money as they have not captured the full costs of the programme. Despite our earlier concerns, the National Audit Office found that the programme costs still may not capture the full costs of reforming the courts …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to assess the full cost of the programme, including proposed inclusions, acknowledging that estimates will be necessary due to unavailable full information. However, it does not explicitly outline how it will do this or commit to writing back within six months as requested.
6
Conclusion
Accepted
The Ministry and HMCTS have not demonstrated that lessons learned from this reform programme and their other major projects have been put into practice effectively. The Ministry and HMCTS recognise that there are several lessons to be learned from the court reform programme, particularly from the implementation of common platform. …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states it already learns lessons through various evaluations. It is piloting a new lessons learned platform, which will be evaluated in autumn, with an aim to launch it department-wide by spring 2024 to ensure lessons are fed into remaining programmes and other major projects.
1
Conclusion
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry) and HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) on progress in delivering reforms to courts and tribunals since we last reported in 2019.1
Government Response Summary
The government 'agrees' with this introductory statement and provides a general update on the reform programme, including its history of timeline extensions, challenges overcome, and commitment to learning lessons, effectively outlining ongoing work related to the programme itself.
7
Conclusion
Accepted
The scope of the programme has also changed significantly since it began in 2016. HMCTS altered and reduced the scope of what it planned to deliver several times. For example, HMCTS and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were originally jointly responsible for the common platform project and planned to deliver …
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the programme's timeline and scope changes, including extensions for civil, family, tribunal, and criminal courts, attributing them partly to underestimating complexity and enabling progress without exceeding funding. It confirms ongoing reviews and oversight by programme boards.
8
Conclusion
Accepted
When we examined the programme in 2019, we were concerned that many stakeholders did not feel listened to, undermining trust in the reforms. We highlighted 7 Qq 28, 86, 105; C&AG’s Report, paras 1.9, Figure 3 8 Q 24; Letter from Nick Goodwin, Chief Executive HM Courts and Tribunals to …
Government Response Summary
The government states it has improved the Common Platform by overhauling its staff feedback process, introducing new digital forms, senior management sponsors, webinars, and increased staff involvement, alongside ongoing engagement with user groups and partners.
9
Conclusion
Accepted
However, users including court staff and stakeholders, still feel that HMCTS’s engagement with them has not been sufficient, especially during the rollout of common platform. We received written evidence from the Bar Council, which told us that as far as it was concerned, the designers and producers of the common …
Government Response Summary
The government states it has improved the Common Platform by overhauling its staff feedback process, introducing new digital forms, senior management sponsors, webinars, and increased staff involvement, alongside ongoing engagement with user groups and partners.
11
Conclusion
Accepted
Problems have also been caused by court staff having had to use a version of common platform that was not sufficiently developed, which has affected justice outcomes and burdened courts. For example, between August 2021 and March 2022, HMCTS had to pause the rollout to address performance issues including system …
Government Response Summary
The government states it has improved the Common Platform by overhauling its staff feedback process, introducing new digital forms, senior management sponsors, webinars, and increased staff involvement, alongside ongoing engagement with user groups and partners.
13
Conclusion
Accepted
It explained that it had several ways it can gather user feedback. For example, it told us that every director in HMCTS was sponsoring an area of the programme which allowed them to listen to user feedback first-hand. HMCTS also stated that it had “six or seven other new mechanisms” …
Government Response Summary
The government states it has improved the Common Platform by overhauling its staff feedback process, introducing new digital forms, senior management sponsors, webinars, and increased staff involvement, alongside ongoing engagement with user groups and partners.
16
Conclusion
Accepted
Despite these assurances, stakeholders such as the Law Society reported that some reformed services failed to meet their needs. For example, it explained that there were functionality issues with online portals for family services, such as family public law. These issues led to problems, including instances of solicitors not getting …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's findings and commits to publishing four Access to Justice assessments in autumn 2023, with further publications in 2024 and 2025. It will investigate identified impacts and implement service fixes, while continuing to gather user feedback and conduct an overarching evaluation of the Reform programme.
17
Conclusion
Accepted
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 …
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.
18
Conclusion
Accepted
We asked witnesses about concerns highlighted by the Law Society that the reforms provided access to process, rather than access to justice. HMCTS told us that it considered the user to be “the single most important judge of whether access to justice is delivered” – for example, victims of crime, …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's findings and commits to publishing four Access to Justice assessments in autumn 2023, with further publications in 2024 and 2025. It will investigate identified impacts and implement service fixes, while continuing to gather user feedback and conduct an overarching evaluation of the Reform programme.
19
Conclusion
Deferred
At December 2022, HMCTS had spent £1.1 billion on the programme. Of its £1.3 billion budget, HMCTS has £120 million of funding left to deliver remaining reforms. HMCTS explained that some of the total £1.3 billion budget was lost due to underspend in previous years that it cannot recover.37 HMCTS …
Government Response Summary
The government commits to assessing the full cost of the programme, considering proposed inclusions, and will respond to the Committee by a six-month deadline (December 2023) setting out this assessment.
23
Conclusion
Accepted
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, …
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges that changes mean savings will be delivered later, with £50 million fewer recurring annual net savings by 2025-26. However, it expects full recurring annual net savings of £227 million by the end of 2026-27, which will include additional benefits to restore those lost from descoped projects.
25
Conclusion
Accepted
HMCTS’s analysis covering April to June 2022 found that unit costs of its fully or partly reformed services were 19% to 146% higher than expected. HMCTS undertook some analysis of these services to try and understand this variation. Its analysis indicated that some services were not working as efficiently as …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's findings, stating that HMCTS is already using a quarterly updated unit cost approach across 15 services to monitor efficiency and track against expected reductions. They acknowledge that savings will be delivered later than expected but anticipate achieving £227 million in recurring annual net savings by the end of 2026-27.
26
Conclusion
Accepted
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 …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's findings and states it has already learned lessons, with further activities planned as projects close. It is piloting a lesson learned platform which, following evaluation in autumn, is intended to launch department-wide in spring 2024 to ensure new projects factor in lessons.
27
Conclusion
Accepted
HMCTS told us it has identified lessons from the programme. For example, it identified the importance of understanding the impact of delivering large scale changes while also maintaining performance and having a whole programme level view of progress. The Ministry and HMCTS also identified that they needed to consider the …
Government Response Summary
The government states it has already learned lessons through various processes and is planning further lessons learned activities for programme closures. It is also piloting a new lesson learned platform, with an aim to launch it department-wide by spring 2024 to ensure lessons are factored into new projects.