HMCTS Board meeting summary - 5 October 2020
Published 18 December 2020
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1. Present HMCTS members
| Board member | Role |
|---|---|
| Tim Parker | Independent Chairman |
| Victoria Cochrane | Senior Independent Non-Executive Member and Audit and Risk Assurance Committee Chair |
| Lakh Jemmett | Non-Executive Member |
| Kevin Sadler | Acting Chief Executive, HM Courts & Tribunals Service |
| Andrew Baigent | Chief Finance Officer |
| Gemma Hewison | Strategy and Change Director |
| Lord Justice Keith Lindblom | Senior President of Tribunals (SPT) |
| Lady Justice Kate Thirlwall | Senior Presiding Judge (SPJ) |
| District Judge Tim Jenkins | Judicial Board member |
| Annabel Burns | MoJ Director, Judicial and Legal Services Policy |
1.1 Presenters and additional attendees
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Paul Harris | Courts and Tribunals Director |
| Jan Gower | Non-Executive Change Portfolio Board member/Critical Friend |
| Nick Goodwin | Interim HMCTS Operations Director |
| Will Breame | Deputy Director, Central Ops & Tribunals Scotland |
| Catherine Blair | Deputy Director, Strategic Finance |
| Strategic Finance – Reform Business Case Lead | |
| John Laverick | Interim Chief Digital and Information Officer (Item 7) |
| Senior Digital Product Manager - Reform Family Public Law Project | |
| Product Owner - Reform Family Public Law Project | |
| Clare Farren | Deputy Director, Judicial Private Offices |
| HMCTS Board Secretary | |
| Head of HMCTS Corporate Governance and Board Secretariat |
2. Welcome and introductions
Tim Parker welcomed attendees to the meeting.
3. Minutes and actions
The minutes from 30 July 2020 were approved and updates on actions were noted.
4. Performance and finance
The Board noted that reinstating capacity to support the COVID-19 recovery plan continued to be a key priority. While planned enabling activity and court room targets were broadly on track, additional measures were being pursued including: the piloting of COVID operating hours; additional Nightingale sites; and increasing the size of the workforce in the short term.
The Board recognised that the workforce was hard pressed and noted that there were challenges to ensure that this level of performance was sustainable over the coming months. It was confirmed that the onboarding of new staff continued to be a focus for HMCTS.
The HMCTS operational and COVID recovery performance was considered by the Board. There were particular discussions around the current and forecast positions in relation to the employment tribunal, and crown court performance, specifically in relation to ‘multi-hander’ cases and ineffective trials due for court related reasons.
The Board concluded by recognising the importance of continuing to deliver reform and initiatives to support COVID recovery. With this in mind, the Board commended the delivery of the Common Platform to early adopter sites and thanked all those involved.
There was a discussion of the period 5 financial report which reflected a more accurate financial position as a number of risks had crystallised and additional funding had now been received.
5. Resilience to concurrent winter risks
The Board talked through the key points of HMCTS’s planning for reasonable worst-case scenarios throughout Winter 2020/21.
The Board noted positive impacts as a result of the work undertaken by HMCTS to ensure the safety of its staff and the users of its buildings (including jurors).
In conclusion, while noting that there were significant challenges and risks which were likely to negatively impact certain hearings and sites, the Board recognised the good progress that had been made to increase resilience over the winter period.
6. Reform programme business case 6 (PBC6)
The Board was presented with PBC6 that had been updated since its last meeting and provided further comments.
Subject to the consideration of its further feedback, the Board approved the business case, noting that minor changes might be made as it progressed through further governance.
Transfer of responsibilities for application hosting, and application management services (AMS) from MoJ to HMCTS Following a discussion, the Board agreed to the proposal to transfer the retendering of the application hosting and application management services contracts and the management of these future contracts from MoJ to HMCTS.
To support the management and assessment of the risks, it was agreed that a deep dive in relation to the proposed approach would be presented to a future HMCTS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee meeting.
7. Demonstration of family public law service
A demonstration of the new family public law service was presented, and the Board noted the significant efficiencies and benefits provided by the new platform.