Open consultation

The Online Procedure (Core Rules and Pilot Schemes) Rules 2026 consultation

Published 4 December 2025

Background

The Online Procedure Rule Committee (OPRC) is responsible, under the provisions of the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022, for making rules for online procedure in the civil, family and tribunals jurisdictions. These rules are to be for specific kinds of online proceedings, as agreed by Parliament.

The Online Procedure Rules (Specified Proceedings) Regulations 2025 confirmed that the OPRC could make Online Procedure Rules for civil and tribunal proceedings relating to Property and family proceedings in relation to financial remedies.

This consultation seeks views and comments on the first Online Procedure Rules to be made by the OPRC. These rules will, in the future, apply to all proceedings where there are Online Procedure Rules. To begin with, they will apply only to possession proceedings.

The draft Online Procedure Rules form the Schedule to a draft Statutory Instrument (SI), which can be found at Annex A at the end of this consultation document. The title of the draft SI is The Online Procedure (Core Rules and Pilot Schemes) Rules 2026.

Aims

The Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 requires that Online Procedure Rules be accessible and fair, and simple and simply expressed. They should also ensure that disputes may be resolved quickly and efficiently and support innovative methods of resolving disputes.

These aims are reflected in the OPRC’s mission statement:

The aim of the Online Procedure Rule Committee is to improve access to justice for all by harnessing the power of modern digital technology in the pre-action space, in the civil and family courts and in the tribunals.

The OPRC is committed to ensuring that the draft Online Procedure Rules can be understood by all users, making clear what people’s rights and responsibilities are.  

The OPRC recently set out their broader aims in relation to inclusion and the approach to the pre-action space in the Digital Justice System: inclusion framework and pre-action model^{[footnote 1]} consultation, which closed to responses on 19 September and which the OPRC will respond to in due course.

Scope of the draft Online Procedure Rules

The draft Online Procedure Rules establish a set of core rules that will apply to all types of proceeding that will fall within its scope. These will form the Schedule to the draft SI below. The OPRC’s intention in putting the Online Procedure Rules in a Schedule to the SI is to make it clear to users which part of the SI contains the Online Procedure Rules, with the rest of the SI providing functional detail.

In the future, the Online Procedure Rules will be expanded to establish rules relating to specific types of online proceedings.

We expect the Online Procedure Rules to evolve over time. For example, they may be added to when Online Procedure Rules are developed for further types of proceedings or following feedback.

Principles based approach

The current draft Online Procedure Rules contains three parts.

Part One contains the principles governing all online proceedings. The OPRC is keen to ensure that the draft Online Procedure Rules clearly set out what people can expect when engaging with online proceedings governed by the Online Procedure Rules.

Part Two contains the core rules which apply to all online proceedings. It is important that the Online Procedure Rules are drafted in such a way that they could apply to all types of proceedings across the civil, family and tribunals jurisdictions, although they will initially apply only to possession proceedings using the digital possession service.

Part Three contains additional rules which apply only to particular types of online proceedings. In the current draft, this part refers users to a Practice Direction for possession claims.

Possession claims

The first type of claim the Online Procedure Rules will apply to is possession claims dealt with by the Possession Service currently under development by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS). This service, once fully operational, will handle all possession claims in England and Wales.

The Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 provides a basis for making practice directions. The draft Statutory Instrument will provide that practice directions may be used to allow for the incremental roll-out of the Possession Service.

 A practice direction will be published setting out the specific procedure to be followed for possession claims using this service, when the service comes into use. The practice direction will provide an opportunity to assess the new practice and procedure before it is included in the Online Procedure Rules.

The intention of the OPRC is that these draft Online Procedure Rules will work alongside the practice direction and the guidance contained within the digital possession service to ensure that users understand the process to be followed.

Once the Possession Service is fully operational for all users, the Online Procedure Rules will be amended so that Part Three will contain the additional detail required for possession claims and the practice direction will no longer be needed.

Questions

1. The OPRC is under a duty to provide Online Procedure Rules that are simple and simply expressed. How well do you think the draft Online Procedure Rules achieve this? Please provide specific examples.

2. The OPRC is keen to ensure that the draft Online Procedure Rules clearly set out what people can expect when engaging with online proceedings governed by the Online Procedure Rules. How well do you think the draft Online Procedure Rules achieve this aim?

3. While the draft Online Procedure Rules will initially apply only to possession proceedings, the intention is that they will eventually apply to all proceedings where there are Online Procedure Rules. How applicable is the chosen terminology to proceedings in other jurisdictions such as family or tribunals? Are there any specific examples that need to be reconsidered?

4. The overriding objective sets out what the OPRC aims to achieve by making these rules. Is this clear? If not, why not?

5. Do you have any other comments on the wording of these draft rules?

Practical information and next steps

Completed response forms should be sent to OPRCConsultations@justice.gov.uk by 10am on 15 January 2026.

The response form can be found on the OPRC’s web page.

If you have any questions regarding this consultation, please use the email address above or email the general enquiries inbox at OPRC@justice.gov.uk.

Please contact the Secretariat at OPRC@justice.gov.uk if you require the consultation translated into the Welsh Language.

The OPRC will consider all feedback from this consultation and make any necessary amendments before approving the draft Online Procedure Rules. It is anticipated that the draft Online Procedure Rules will be laid in Parliament as a Statutory Instrument in early 2026. A pilot Practice Direction to govern use of the digital possession service will follow.

Annex A

You can view the draft Online Procedure Rules SI on GOV.UK

1. Digital justice system: inclusion framework and pre-action model - GOV.UK ↩