Transparency data

HM Courts and Tribunals Service Board meeting – 9 April 2025

Published 30 September 2025

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

1. Attendees

1.1 Present

Name	Role
Sir Richard Broadbent	Chair
Nick Fishwick	Senior Independent Non-Executive Member
Nicky Wilden	Non-Executive Member and Audit and Risk Assurance Committee Chair
Luisa Fulci	Non-Executive Member
Annabel Burns	Strategy, Analysis and Planning Director
Daniel Flury	Operations Director
Catherine Blair	Chief Finance Officer
Jerome Glass	DG Policy – Courts and Access to Justice (MoJ)
Lord Justice Nicholas Green	Senior Presiding Judge (SPJ)
Mr Justice Dove	Deputy Senior President of Tribunals
HHJ Alison Raeside	Judicial Board member (intermittently due to joining remotely from overseas)
Sally Parkinson	Director – Judicial and Legal Services Policy
Michelle Crotty	Chief Executive, Judicial Office
Allison Gerrard	HR Director
Sir Brian Leveson	Independent Review of the Criminal Courts
Independent Review of the Criminal Courts team member
Independent Review of the Criminal Courts team member

1.2 Presenters

Name	Role
Ed Wagstaff	Deputy Director – Strategy User & Insight
Joint Head of Strategy Unit
Jo Peacock	Deputy Director, Data, Analysis and Insight

1.3 Secretariat

Role
Head of Governance
Deputy Head of Board Secretariat
Head of Operational Judicial Private Offices

1.4 Apologies

Name	Role
Nick Goodwin	Chief Executive

2. Board Minutes and Action Log

The draft minutes from the HMCTS Board on 13 March 2025 were approved as drafted and the action log was noted.

3. Board Effectiveness Review

Board members considered the main messages from the HMCTS Board Effectiveness Review Survey. Whilst the results were positive, there were a range of views in relation to whether the Board set an overarching direction for the organisation. Reflecting that the perception of HMCTS by its stakeholders did not always align with that of HMCTS, it was suggested that the Board could focus on having a greater interaction and understanding of key stakeholders.

4. Board Terms of Reference

It was confirmed that no amendments to the Terms of Reference were being proposed, as there had been no material changes to the operation or responsibilities of the Board since they were last reviewed. However, once the outcomes of the Public Bodies Review and (potentially) the HMCTS Framework Document review were known, the Terms of Reference would be subject to a further review.

Following a discussion, the proposed (unchanged) HMCTS Board Terms of Reference were approved.

5. CEO Report

The Board discussed the Government’s recent announcement that there would be a comprehensive review of all arm’s length bodies (ALBs), with a view to close, merge or bring functions back into departments.

The interim Permanent Secretary had asked for a new blueprint for the department to be developed within the next 10 weeks in preparation for the Spending Review and the next period. There was a focus on how MoJ could support the growth agenda, noting that the legal sector was expected to form part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy. The recent Justice Select Committee (JSC) session in relation to the work of the county court was discussed.

The continued positive momentum in terms of overall HMCTS performance and the regional allocation of operational budgets, following the conclusion of the concordat process, were welcomed.

6. Performance & Finance Updates

The number of Crown Court sitting days utilised in 2024-25 and the implications were discussed.

The positive performance in Family Public Law was welcomed. The position in relation to the Immigration & Asylum Chamber was discussed. Whilst the jurisdiction productivity plans and other initiatives were being taken forward, it was recognised that a reduction in demand was likely to be required to prevent continued increases in outstanding caseload.

Beyond the paper submitted to the Board on period 11, an update on the likely outturn (P12) financial position was provided.

7. Independent Review of the Criminal Courts

Sir Brian provided an overview of the progress of the review, the engagement that had taken place and the areas that were being explored. Board members were invited to share their thoughts

8. Potential future-facing reforms

The Board discussed the six potential areas for a future-facing reform agenda across HMCTS might focus: (1) Civil, Family and Tribunals (CFT) (2) Criminal justice; (3) Virtual hearings; (4) Estates; (5) Administrative justice; (6) Financial and workforce.   

The Board agreed that the proposed 6 ideas appeared to be the right areas of focus but asked for clarity on their respective priorities and accountability for driving them forward.

9. Spending Review (SR) Phase 2 update

The Board was invited to note a summary of the bids as part of the SR process and HMCTS’s current understanding of next steps.

10. Our Ways Of Working

An overview was provided on the development of “Our Ways of Working.” as a strategic enabler for delivery to begin to draw out and demonstrate how HMCTS would deliver and in part address productivity challenges. Rather than being too focused on how it was articulated, the priority would be to operationalise this work.

Observations from Board members included whether there needed to be more focus on how HMCTS colleagues interacted and collaborated with each other and how HMCTS could empower them, in particular more junior frontline colleagues, to be proactive in how they undertook their roles. It was suggested that communication and collaboration with stakeholders and key users was also important.

The role of the judiciary and their relationships with local staff were discussed. Whilst the ways of working were initially being held by the Executive Team, it would begin to be used to frame future discussions and conversations with colleagues across the organisation.

11. Productivity Progress Update and Measurement Framework

In advance of this item, there was a brief discussion in relation to the paper that had been provided on timeliness measures and regional variations. It was agreed that a substantive discussion should be scheduled for the next meeting.

The Board reviewed the proposed approach to reporting on productivity and delivering the action plans. It was confirmed that some of the proposed Productivity Performance Metrics would be harder to produce due to the current quality and availability of data or other factors such as the need to balance this work against other priorities.

It was important that metrics were agreed in collaboration with the Judicial Office to ensure that insights from relevant judges were fully considered. The commitment and involvement of the judiciary was a crucial aspect of this work.

12. Management Information Teach-in

An outcome from last year’s board effectiveness review was that teach-ins would be scheduled, and this inaugural session was focused on the interactive management information dashboard. The Board was led through management information that was available by service/jurisdiction and by region. Rather than circulating a printed MI pack, a link to the dashboard was included in the operational performance paper, though steps would be taken to resolve the access issues some members were encountering.

The Board welcomed the level of information that was available and the changes that had been made in response to previous requests to improve the measures/metrics in place. The work being undertaken to address data quality was discussed. It was confirmed that, where issues were identified, the time series would be updated on the dashboard. The need to ensure that there was judicial confidence in the data, the digital systems from which this was derived and their ability to use available MI tools was recognised. The HMCTS Data, Analysis and Insight team agreed to attend judicial events to discuss MI where this would be helpful.