Policy paper

2010 to 2015 government policy: justice system transparency

Updated 8 May 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

This is a copy of a document that stated a policy of the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The previous URL of this page was https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/creating-a-transparent-justice-system. Current policies can be found at the GOV.UK policies list.

Issue

The public should be able to see how the justice system is working where they live so that they can hold local public services to account.

We need to improve the transparency of the justice system by publishing data and information that is accessible, meaningful and easily understood.

Actions

As part of our commitment to open data we will publish a greater range of data and information including:

  • quarterly local reoffending rates
  • how long cases take in criminal, civil or family courts, published every quarter
  • how crimes were dealt with and whether offenders went to court

We will also introduce new rules to allow filming and broadcast of proceedings from the Court of Appeal and Crown Courts.

Background

In July 2010, the Prime Minister wrote to government departments instructing them to become more transparent and open by releasing more data.

We have made a large number of datasets about justice available via the data.gov.uk and police.uk websites, showing justice outcomes and the level of reoffending after convictions and court sentences.

We set up an independently chaired Crime and Justice Transparency Sector Panel made up of experts from across the private, public and third sectors, to provide support and advice on greater transparency in the crime and justice sectors.

Who we’ve consulted

In July 2012 we published Swift and Sure Justice: The Government’s Plans for Reform of the Criminal Justice System which contained commitments to make the criminal justice system more accessible and accountable to the public.