Strategic Engagement Group Meeting – Chair’s Summary – 6 June 2023
Published 21 June 2023
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1. Introduction
This document summarises the discussion of the Strategic Engagement Group (StratEG) meeting held on 6 June 2023. The meeting was held online.
Members of the Bar Council, Law Society and Chartered Institute of Legal Executives met with the jurisdictional leads for the HMCTS reform programme and HMCTS corporate relations team for the latest bi-monthly update and discussion.
The meeting included 3 presentations:
- Common Platform update
- Megatrends and the future of HMCTS
- Publications and Information Project – Features and benefits of the Court and Tribunal Hearings (CaTH) service
2. Reform Programme – jurisdictional updates
Each jurisdiction provided updates on their area and project delivery
2.1 Future hearings
Work continues with the video hearing pathfinder court to look at business processes which will support the roll out of remote hearings for the crime jurisdiction. Features continue to be refined to ensure accessibility. A tender has been published for procurement for the video engine which will be awarded in the autumn. The video hearings service will be rolled out across 4 jurisdictions by March 2025.
Technical integration between Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) reformed case management system and ListAssist was successfully deployed on 6 March 2023. Private Law integrated case management and ListAssist reform service commenced in the early adopter court in Swansea on 17 May. Testing between ListAssist and Common Platform continues.
Since April, civil and family hearing lists have been published by courts in Oxford, Milton Keynes, Reading, Slough and High Wycombe. The streamlined process of publishing these lists includes automation between ListAssist and the Court and Tribunal Hearings (CaTH) service.
2.2 Civil
Online Civil Money Claims (OCMC) and Damages Claims services have both recently released features for legal representatives. In the coming months both services will also benefit from further functionality including the ability to upload evidence in readiness for a hearing, pay a hearing fee, and the ability to make an application, including lodging a consent order.
2.3 Family
Family Private Law gained approval and went live on 17 May with the full end-to-end digital journey for users with the first phase of early adopter testing in Swansea Family courts and has received the first case through the new digital system. The Adoption service is testing the digital application and the ability to pay for this online. This service is available to litigants in person only and at 11 early adopter sites.
2.4 Tribunals
Technical development work has begun on the new SSCS ‘post hearing’ feature. The new feature will include statement of reasons, setting aside and corrections. A new online Employment Tribunal 3 MyHMCTS portal for represented respondents has been released. It will allow professional users to submit and manage online claims and responses for the Employment Tribunals.
3. Crime and Common Platform
The design phase is now complete for all remaining Common Platform functionality, however we continue to engage with user groups as we develop the designs.
At the time of this meeting, the Common Platform is live in 185 courts (62 Crown Courts and 123 Magistrates’ Courts). This equates to 84% of courts that are now live. There are 6 tranches of courts in 4 regions remaining to complete the national roll out of the Common Platform. These are due to be implemented by the end of summer 2023.
New defence guidance covering the digitisation of the Preparation for Effective Trial (PET) and BetterCase Management (BCM) forms (CPS Release 1) has recently been published, providing a detailed overview of the new functionality.
4. Megatrends and the future of HMCTS
HMCTS Business Strategy led a presentation and discussion about how future megatrends may impact HMCTS and its legal professional users. Through research the most relevant current megatrends for HMCTS, its users and the wider justice system were identified and included ‘new models of work’, ‘change in user expectations’ and ‘tech acceleration’.
5. Publications and Information Project – Features and benefits of the Court and Tribunal Hearings (CaTH) service
The presentation outlined the features, benefits and provided a demonstration of the new Court and Tribunal Hearings (CaTH) service. The service aims to modernise and improve access to HMCTS information by providing a single place on GOV.UK for court and tribunal lists for members of the media, public and legal professionals.
Functionality is being rolled out across courts that are already using ListAssist and will roll out further from September 2023. The project supports HMCTS’ commitment to open justice.
6. Next meeting
A date for the next meeting will be circulated to members, to reflect the change in frequency.