Policy paper

How we support vulnerable users - update October 2024

Updated 11 April 2025

1.  Introduction

Needing to use one of our services can be a daunting experience for anyone. It can be an even bigger challenge for the most vulnerable in our society.

We say that people are vulnerable when they have a difficulty and need extra support. This could be a disability, mental health condition or an experience which has made someone feel unsafe.

“How we support vulnerable users” shows how we aim to make our courts and tribunals accessible for everyone. It sets out what we’ve done, so our vulnerable users are not disadvantaged or discriminated against when using our services.

We’re committed to making sure we’re listening to people using our services who are more vulnerable, and our partners who support vulnerable groups. We’re working to adapt and improve our services to meet their needs. We’re working with our Ministry of Justice (MoJ) colleagues and other government departments to make sure we provide the right level of support. It’s important to us our vulnerable users can always access the justice system safely and with confidence.

The MoJ is conducting an overall evaluation of the Reform programme, which is focussed on access to justice and vulnerability across all jurisdictions. More information can be found at HMCTS Reform Overarching Evaluation: Research. 

2. Background

We last published in April 2024.

As the HMCTS Reform Programme closes in March 2025 we’ve taken the opportunity to review how we provide updates. We’ll focus on what we’ve achieved and continued since our last update. To reflect this change, you’ll notice we’ve changed our Oct 24 publication title to “How we support vulnerable users”.

We continue to focus on three priority areas. These are:

• providing our vulnerable users with support to access and participate in court and tribunal services and signposting to other sources of information and support when needed
• gathering and collating evidence and using it to identify impacts of changes on vulnerable users
• making our services accessible for vulnerable users.

We’ll continue to make sure our vulnerable users can access our services and will do this through:

• ongoing engagement with vulnerable users and our partners who support the needs of vulnerable groups
• implementing cross government strategies such as the National Disability Strategy, the National strategy for autistic children, young people, and adults, and the MoJ Neurodiversity action plan.

We continue to support vulnerable people to access and participate in court and tribunal services by:

• ensuring special measures continue to be in place.

Special measures are provisions which can be put in place to support vulnerable users. The type of support will depend on the case or hearing as special measures are not the same in all jurisdictions. Examples of special measures include providing a remote link to give evidence and the use of screens in court

• providing reasonable adjustments for users with disabilities. Reasonable adjustment is the name used in the Equality Act 2010 for something we can put in place to help users with disabilities.  Examples of reasonable adjustments include providing our information in an alternative format e.g. in audio or easy read, helping someone complete a form or providing a chair to meet a user’s specific need

• providing intermediary services if users need communication support at a court or tribunal hearing. Intermediaries are communication specialists who work on behalf of HMCTS to support people participating in a court or tribunal hearing. They provide impartial recommendations to HMCTS about a person’s specific communication needs and outline the steps needed to achieve them

• using remote hearing links and providing users with information about video hearings. This includes a website link, details of how to join the hearing and what to do if they need support

• completing equality impact assessments to understand the potential impacts of change on users with protected characteristics.  It is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of age, gender, marital status, being pregnant, disability, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation.  These are called protected characteristics

• publishing a range of information and guidance on GOV.UK to prepare users and reassure them about coming to a court or tribunal

• signposting people to additional support that will help them. With the right information, we can identify the user’s needs and connect them to external support services

• providing Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyards. People who choose to wear the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower are discreetly indicating they need additional support, help or a little more time
• providing support during in person and remote hearings. This could be providing interpreters’ or offering sessions to help people complete their online applications.

Some support can only be agreed by the Judiciary, for example special measures or an intermediary. The judge will look at all the information about the support needed to make their decision. 

3. What we’ve done since our last update

3.1 Providing our vulnerable users with support to access and participate in court and tribunal services and signposting to other sources of information and support when needed

Cross Jurisdictional

We have:

• reviewed how HMCTS describes the support it can provide for users. We’ve also reviewed how we ask people about their support needs across a range of HMCTS forms.  This work will help us to identify ways to improve users understanding of their support options and make it easier to request support.

Civil, Family and Tribunals

We have:

• introduced a webchat option for Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) in Scotland. Help to use the system is available via the SSCS tribunal service centre

• enhanced our approach to domestic abuse by:

  • attending a multi-agency Domestic Abuse Champions Network
  • continuing to work with OCS, one of our contracted services partners to understand their domestic abuse awareness training for Court Security Officers

• continued to test Family Private Law applications for litigants in person to see how we can improve the system for applicants. Private Law cases are between family members, such as parents or other relatives and do not involve the Local Authority.

Crime

We have:

• made improvements to 13 crown court witness waiting rooms across England and Wales. These include video link rooms to facilitate pre-recorded evidence, new refreshment stations, more comfortable seating, as well as damp-proofing, re-painting and re-carpeting

• continued to support courts to provide pre-recorded cross examinations for the most vulnerable in society including those with severe health issues or illness that could affect evidence.

• continued to support remote link sites to offer pre-recorded cross examination allowing greater flexibility to victims and witnesses

• enhanced the quality of communication and support offered to victims of sexual offences across three SSVS Crown courts in Leeds, Newcastle and Snaresbrook (London)

• appointed a supplier to provide a counselling service for jurors at 15 pilot sites. The pilot will run for six months and will identify how to provide ongoing support to jurors in difficult cases.

• continued to support the introduction of Community Sentence Treatment Requirements and Mental Health Treatment Requirements (MHTR’s) in all courts in England and Wales. This means judiciary can consider Drug Rehabilitation Requirement, Alcohol Treatment Requirement and secondary care MHTR’s when sentencing

• partnered with the Home Office Policy and Innovation Lab (CoLab) who have undertaken a review of Liaison and Diversion services.

3.2 Gathering and collating evidence and using it to identify impacts of changes on vulnerable users

Cross Jurisdictional

We have:

• completed access to justice assessments for:
  • Immigration and Asylum First Tier Tribunal
  • Single Justice Service

The assessments help identify common barriers to accessing justice, what causes these barriers and what might help remove them. We will publish the findings later in the year.

• Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published a qualitative study that explores the challenges vulnerable adults with legal problems experience, and what support would have helped them access justice.

• continued to collect protected characteristics data, which will help us gain a fuller understanding of people who use our services

• continued to review the information provided by users when using the Automated Payment Line which gives another way to pay for warrants on County Court Judgements.

3.3 Making our services accessible for vulnerable users

Cross Jurisdictional

We have:

• reviewed the Video Hearing Service to see how improvements could be made to support the unique business processes in the crime jurisdictions. Participants are allowed to attend a hearing remotely with the permission of the judge.

• continued to roll out the digital support service (We Are Group) to more of our services. We are Group supports users who are unable to, or struggle getting online.

• completed site surveys in a number of our buildings to identify accessibility issues and continue to make improvements to physical accessibility of our buildings by:

  • making sure Equality Impact Assessments are considered at an early stage in all new major projects
  • working across HMCTS to address accessibility concerns raised by stakeholders
  • reviewing site survey data about accessibility of our buildings when it becomes available
  • using additional specialist surveys to understand the current condition of our estate (pilot surveys started March 2024, completed September 2024)

Civil, Family and Tribunals

We have:

• updated and published our Accessibility Statement for Make a Claim to an Employment Tribunal which is currently being improved following an internal assessment. A full external assessment will take place in October

• made improvements and will continue to review the case flags process to our civil case management systems. Case flags notify staff something specific is required in a case. This could be special measures, reasonable adjustments, Welsh language or anything else the court needs to be aware of

• made further improvements in the divorce service to the citizen and solicitor journey by extending the digital journey to cover the following:-
• improving landing pages and the progress bar so citizens know where they are in the digital journey
• solicitors can now apply to change representation via the portal instead of over email.

• users can apply for general applications within proceedings digitally and respond to the court via the portal instead of email.

• continued to review the information provided by users when using the Automated Payment Line which gives another way to pay for warrants on County Court Judgements.

4.  Looking to the future

We’ll continue to review any changes we make to understand what the impacts are on vulnerable users. 

We’ll continue to talk with external stakeholders and partners and if we find negative impacts on vulnerable people using our services, we’ll take steps to fix them.