Transparency data

Strategic Engagement Group Meeting – Chair’s Summary – 3 December 2024

Published 18 December 2024

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

1. Introduction

This document summarises the discussion of the Strategic Engagement Group (StratEG) meeting held on 3 December 2024. The meeting was held online.

Members of the Bar Council, Law Society and Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) met representatives of HMCTS for the latest quarterly meeting.

The meeting included verbal updates covering:

• Operational and strategic overviews
• Video Hearings Service
• Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) Free Sentencing Remarks pilot

Other demonstrations / presentations covered:

• Civil reform: national roll out of case progression features
• HMCTS Reform Evaluation: Vulnerability Study

2. Operational and strategic overview

The Online Procedure Rules Committee continues its vital work developing rules for online courts and tribunal services. Work is particularly focused on property possession cases and financial remedies in the Family Court, with secondary legislation expected by Easter 2025. A sub committee established in July is making progress on model rules for the pre-action phase.

Following the Lord Chancellor’s October announcement of the Spending Review, Phase One departmental allocations are proceeding through the Concordat process. Phase Two is expected to be commissioned before the end of the year and settled in spring 2025. HMCTS continues to prepare its priorities and delivery plans accordingly.

Significant operational changes are underway with the implementation of the Renters Rights Bill, introduced in September 2024. The removal of Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions is expected to increase the number of cases requiring full hearings in county courts.

The Online Civil Money Claims service has expanded to handle claims up to £25,000, with positive feedback from legal professionals.

Mandatory mediation for small claims has shown encouraging results, with October achieving record numbers as 6,500 cases were referred.

The domestic abuse service for legal representatives launched in Swansea and Midwest Wales in November, with the Private Family Law service expanding to Hull and Grimsby. Further expansion to Chelmsford and East London is planned within the following 3 months.

The Family Court Pathfinder programme has demonstrated notable success in reducing caseloads and waiting times through early intervention. Wider expansion remains dependent on Government funding.

Immigration and asylum cases have seen a significant increase, with caseloads rising. Civil performance displays mixed results. Possession cases, despite a 50% increase in claims, are being processed within 8-12 weeks. Family Court performance has improved but reaching the 26-week target for public law cases remains challenging.

3. Civil reform: national roll out of case progression features

The civil reform team presented a live demonstration on the case progression features, focusing on the digital evidence upload system. Since its launch to legal representatives last November, the system has received positive feedback and undergone various improvements. A significant expansion is now underway to include citizen users launching in December 2024.

The system incorporates robust safeguards and user guidance, particularly in the citizen-facing version. Clear instructions guide users through document upload procedures and deadlines.

The team highlighted the step-by-step functionality of these features, emphasising the system’s user-friendly design and built-in error prevention measures.

4. Video Hearings Service update

The service has not been operational since July 2024 when it was taken offline to address stability issues.

Although the technical problems have now been resolved, HMCTS has delayed the restoration of the service until the planned transition to the new service provider, Vodafone, has been completed.

5. HMCTS Reform Evaluation: Vulnerability Study

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) presented findings from its vulnerability study, which forms part of a broader evaluation of court modernisation efforts. The research, involving 120 individuals with recent legal experiences, found that users’ needs vary significantly, with no single solution suitable for all.

While online services and remote hearings received positive feedback in certain areas, particularly probate cases and domestic abuse situations, the study identified several persistent challenges. These included limited understanding of legal processes, financial barriers, and the need for better emotional and practical support.

In response to these findings, HMCTS has developed a vulnerability action plan and signposting strategy. The discussion highlighted ongoing challenges in making courts more accessible, with suggestions made for educational materials and improved support services.

The study’s findings will inform future improvements to court services, although additional research is still needed in areas such as immigration and asylum.

6. Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) Free Sentencing Remarks Pilot update

A twelve-month pilot programme for Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) Free Sentencing Remarks was launched in May 2024, enabling victims to request free copies of judges’ sentencing remarks from Crown Court cases.

The pilot’s broad scope includes any Crown Court sentencing with existing recordings, regardless of when they occurred. Various communication channels are being used to raise awareness of the service, though reaching all potential users remains challenging.

The team is evaluating several expansion possibilities, including extending the service to include full trial transcripts or broadening access to all victims. This evaluation will help determine the most beneficial format for RASSO victims.

Additionally, a complementary initiative focusing on remote observation capabilities is being trialled across several courts, with Leeds designated as the main project location. This includes developing secure observation suites to keep victims separate from defendants.

7. Reform programme – jurisdictional updates

Written jurisdictional updates were provided to the group.

7.1 Crime

All magistrates’ courts have been listing and managing hearings in the Common Platform schedule since its technical release at the end of September. Phase one of a scheduling tool that enables courts to make real time updates to their schedule in a user interface has been live in several courts since November 2024. Phase two will introduce automated booking controls to block over listing.

The Single Justice Procedure is currently live in six regions across 29 police forces with the remaining forces to be rolled out by January 2025.

Ahead of the conclusion of the Reform Programme in March 2025, the project is preparing for Gate 5/IPA assurance review and remains on track for closure in April 2025.

7.2 Future hearings

The P1 outage in the Video Hearings Service which started in July 2024 has now been resolved. HMCTS has decided not to reinstate the Service before migrating over to the new supplier, Vodafone.

Work continues in partnership with Vodafone to deliver a special measures solution and an enhanced interpreter function.

The live ListAssist service has over 12,500 users with steady growth in user numbers as more services onboard. The service is overseen by the Scheduling and Listing Service Board which is represented by HMCTS Operations team and the judiciary.

An HMCTS data driven insight group is being set up to understand available data and business challenges with a view to consider new technologies such as AI to support optimising our hearing capacity.

The Single Justice Procedure lists continue to be published on the new external publications tool, the Court and Tribunal Hearings (CaTH) service. Civil and Family hearing lists for several courts are also published on CaTH and more will be using it shortly. Hearing lists for Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal are also available on CaTH and an approach to allow more Tribunal lists to be published on CaTH is being developed.

7.3 Civil

Over 612,000 Online Civil Money Claims (OCMC) have been issued by litigants in person. A new OCMC service went live for litigants in person in October 2024 and approximately 9,400 claims have been received so far. Both litigants in person and legal professionals can now issue money claims with a value up to £25,000.

In November 2025, the Civil Automated Referral to Mediation (CARM) phase 2 was released, facilitating the automatic referral of OCMC for newly issued claims.

The Citizen Case Progressional release 3 has been scheduled for December 2024 and will provide an end-to-end service for litigants in person for small claims and fast track claims.

In January 2025 there will be in increase of Legal Advisor powers which aims to increase the disparity between digital and paper applications.

The mandating of OCMC for legal representatives is planned for January 2025 for those issuing and responding to eligible money claims on paper and HMCTS anticipate up to 70,000 more claims being issued on OCMC annually.

Over 165,000 claims have been issued since the Damages Claims Service went live in May 2021 and has seen a significant increase in digital uptake.

7.4 Family

The Private Family Law Service in Swansea and Mid & West Wales courts is progressing well and further testing of the service before it is moved into the litigants in person journey is ongoing.

As of November 2024, 189 child arrangement cases have been received in Swansea and mid & West Wales since the recommencement and all cases have remained in the service digitally.

The Domestic Abuse Professional User Scheme release went live in Swansea in November 2024.

Hull Family Courts will be the first early adopter courts in England with the courts set to commence in December 2024.

8. Next meeting

The next meeting will be on 4 March 2025.