The court modernisation programme is prioritising savings above access to justice, MPs warn
updated on 04 November 2019
MPs have sharply criticised the government’s courts modernisation programme because it “risks excluding the most vulnerable in our society from access to justice,” and called for a halt in the process of court closures.
In a damning report released last week, the House of Commons justice select committee warned that the focus on adopting technology enabling court proceedings to take place digitally, thus saving money by allowing more court closures, is based on a “mistaken assumption” that people with no legal training will be able to navigate the court system without receiving legal advice.
The committee accused those in charge of the government’s £1 billion modernisation programme, HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and the senior judiciary, of prioritising costs savings over the public’s access to justice. The report states: “Had access to justice been the primary focus of the reforms, we do not think we would have received such a volume of evidence criticising the approach of HMCTS.”
As the Law Gazette reports, the committee recognised HMCTS’ efforts to develop user-friendly digital systems and acknowledged the need for modernisation in the courts system, but concluded that “HMCTS’s enthusiasm for video links and video hearings is in sharp contrast to the views of people with first-hand experience of using this barely researched technology, who pointed to the communication barriers that it can create.”
An immediate moratorium on further court closures is among the report’s recommendations, as well as a call for HMCTS to confirm that access to justice, not savings and efficiencies, is at the centre of all modernisation plans.
MPs were uncompromising on what they described as “the government’s failure to provide enough publicly funded legal advice and representation to support court users who, for whatever reason, struggle to navigate the justice system without support…The success of many aspects of the reform programme depends on this being addressed as soon as possible.”
