Transparency data

Strategic Engagement Group Meeting Chair’s Summary - October 2022

Published 4 November 2022

1. Introduction

This document summarises the discussion of the Strategic Engagement Group (StratEG) meeting held on 25 October 2022. The meeting was held online and face-to-face at 102 Petty France, London.

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 - on Common Platform, HMCTS Reform Programme’s evaluation and Family Private Law Digital Service.

2. Reform programme

Each jurisdiction updated on their area and project delivery.

2.1 Tribunals

The Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) appeal process is moving well into a digital service. There is no release date for the new SSCS5 appeal form (HMRC appeals). Case Access Management for the SSCS5 form is due to be released this month.

Technical work for the Scheduling and Listing work is complete and ready to rollout to the pathfinder site in Cardiff. Immigration Bail Private Beta has been released to Hatton Cross Hearing Centre.

Other Appellant in Person (AIP) features for additional evidence to make an application was released in September. Facility for online card payment will be available in a week or two.

In the Employment Tribunal, the pathfinder sites are at Glasgow and Leeds. In the Special Tribunals, the programme will conclude at the end of March 2023.

2.2 Future hearings

The video hearings implementation has slowed and will restart mid-summer 2023.

ListAssist is live in civil and Family Courts and the project is looking to extend it to criminal courts. Implementation in SSCS is also underway. Work has commenced with Special Tribunals to explore if ListAssist is viable.

The Court and Tribunal Hearing Service is publishing the Single Justice Procedure press list. A small number of civil and Family Courts are being prepared to start publishing to the new services.

2.3 Family

There was a further update at this meeting on Family Private Law Digital Service, paragraph 5 below.

The family project’s focus is on an end-to-end service. There will be some re-planning which will be submitted to the November Civil, Family & Tribunals Programme board and shared in due course.

2.4 Civil

With respect to Damages Claims Service and Online Civil Money Claims, the project was extending digital functionality with the ability to make default judgments, for judges to make direction orders and to make general applications. Release dates are to be confirmed.

The project envisages an increased uptake of the Online Civil Money Claims service. It is looking to improve the uptake for litigants-in-person. User research and testing is progressing and stakeholders will be invited to provide their views. Hearing fees can now be paid online.

3. Crime

The programme has worked closely with the Judicial Working Group, Defence Practitioners Working Group, CPS and HMCTS staff user groups, to complete the designs for future functionality of Common Platform. The next steps will be user acceptance testing in a mock environment and demonstrating the functionality to users.

Work is continuing with police forces to pilot literature and posters intended to reduce the number of unrepresented users of the service.

3.1 Crime – Common Platform

The Crime Programme Board had approved to pause the rollout of Common Platform for feedback. Rollout has now resumed, and it is live in Essex and is being re-planned for Lancashire and South Yorkshire. Rollout to Kent, West Midlands and Warwickshire is planned for next week. The national rollout plan runs until March 2023 and will be subject to re-planning as necessary.

To date, there have been 380,000 hearings on Common Platform with 65% of courts live on Common Platform. Rollout to London will be early next year as the Metropolitan Police are installing a new technology system to the end of March 2023.

The Single Justice Procedure is currently live in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Merseyrail should go live in the week commencing 31 October.

4. Reform programme evaluation

The overarching evaluation of the reform programme is independent of the programme itself, conducted by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). MoJ published a framework for the evaluation in May 2021.

An interim report will be published in December 2022. The evaluation and research are ongoing and expected to complete in 2025 to 2026.

The First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) interim process evaluation has been published, of legally represented defendants.

5. Family – Private Law Digital Service

The presentation updated that provided at the previous meeting on 30 August 2022. The project has developed the front-end solicitor application journey for child arrangements and domestic abuse.

The presentation illustrated a high-level project timeline from March 2021 to project closure in August 2023. Private beta was successfully delivered in April 2022. The extended private beta will be pushed back from November to February 2023 and national rollout will commence in May 2023 subject to Programme Board formal agreement.

6. Other updates

The reform project-level information on GOV.UK has been updated.

Information on current projects has been added to factsheets, published by jurisdiction:

• HMCTS Reform: Civil fact sheets
• HMCTS Reform: Crime fact sheets
• HMCTS Reform: Family fact sheets
• HMCTS Reform: Tribunals fact sheets
• HMCTS Reform: Infrastructure and enabling services fact sheets

A number of new events have been added on the events page, including weekly drop-in sessions for users of Common Platform, a new Common Platform webinar aimed at defence professionals and an update on the Probate Service for charities.

7. Next meeting

The next meeting has been brought forward from 20 December to 13 December 2022.

Amy Allen

Acting Head of Corporate Relations, HMCTS and Chair of Strategic Engagement Group.