Transparency data

Chair’s Summary – Strategic Engagement Group Meeting 25 August 2020

Published 22 September 2020

1. Introduction

A summary of the discussion of the Strategic Engagement Group (StratEG) meeting held on 25 August 2020. This meeting was held by video, rather than face-to-face due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Members of the Bar Council, Law Society and Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx)met with the HMCTS Strategic Engagement Team and Reform project teams for the latest 6-weekly update and discussion.

2. Court reform

Representatives(reps)received an update from each jurisdiction including the impact of the pandemic on project delivery, and presentations from the Common Platform and MYHMCTS teams.

The jurisdictional update outlined the milestones which have been affected by COVID-19: Online Civil Money Claims transition to Stoke CTSC had been delayed from April to July2020, as discussed at the last meeting. Completion of the Divorce project has been extended to the end of 2020. The Social Security and Child Support(“SSCS”)project has been extended to the end of 2021. Common Platform (which was a detailed presentation) early adopters are due to start at the beginning of September2020with the national rollout now commencing in early 2021.

A future hearings update told the group that video hearings were continuing in the Tax and Property chambers and that this work would be used to help inform the chambers where video technology can be used next. The group discussed the publishing of the LSE(London School of Economics)Evaluation report and how Cloud Video Platform(“CVP”)had provided a wealth of learning and generally that video hearings had been working well for users. The reps were keen to see the evaluation report from the Flexible Operating Hours pilots in Manchester and Brentwood, which will be published later this year. Reps also provided some thoughts on what the Scheduling and Listing tool should do, these thoughts can be explored at a future meeting when this topic is a focus.

The civil update informed members that there are now over 2,500 users onboarded to the private beta service. In response to a query from the Bar, the group were advised that the Litigants in Person Service within OCMC was designed around taking a non-represented user through the journey step by step, whereas the unspecified claims service was directed at legal professionals as over 80% of claims were submitted by legal professionals.

In tribunals, Social Security and Child Support no mandatory reconsideration notices for Employment and Support Allowance (“ESA”) payment pending appeals had gone live as expected, with amendments to the GOV.UK forms in hand. The Immigration and Asylum chamber has now received over 1,800 legally represented appeals and the service is now covering claims from issue all the way through to the First-tier permission to appeal stage. Work is being done on fee and payment processes with the project due for completion in March 2021.

3. Presentations from reform projects

The Common Platform project informed the group that when Derby early adopter goes live in September 2020 it will also now include work from Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court, following the combination of their work in response to Coronavirus (COVID-19). Cases will start to be added to the platform from 1 September 2020, meaning cases are likely to start the week after and some warrant cases will have to remain on the LIBRA system for the time being. The project team asked the reps to encourage their members, especially from defence positions, to sign up to the platform early. The project team will provide assistance with this if needed. The project national rollout is aiming to commence in early 2021, dependant on the progress of the early adopters.

MyHMCTS project team presented to the group telling them about the new platform for legal professionals and other organisations, to use to issue, pay for and manage applications within civil, family and tribunal courts. The group were told that once an organisation has registered, users can be added. Currently there are over 3,000 organisations and 11,000 users registered. The next elements of the platform being developed included: ability to share a case with another organisation, adding a respondent to a case and a notice of change. User research from users so far is showing that the platform is reliable and the group’s views on additional features for inclusion were welcomed.

4. Next meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for 6 October 2020 with a presentation due from the Video Hearings team, with others to be confirmed.

Caroline Olaiya
Head of Strategic Stakeholder Relations
Chair of StratEG