Transparency data

Strategic Engagement Group Meeting – Chair’s Summary – 4 March 2025

Published 20 March 2025

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

1. Introduction

This document summarises the discussion of the Strategic Engagement Group (StratEG) meeting held on 4 March 2025. The meeting was held online.

Members of the Bar Council, Law Society and Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) met representatives of HMCTS for the latest quarterly meeting.

The meeting included a verbal update covering:

• Operational and strategic overviews

Presentations covered:

• Justice-Wide Intermediaries and Lay Advocate Support
• Common Platform update
• MoJ Call for Evidence on Open Justice: Summary of Responses

2. Operational and strategic overview

An update on the Online Procedure Rules Committee (OPRC) was provided. A draft Statutory Instrument is currently before Parliament with a Lords debate scheduled for 17 March 2025. This would grant the OPRC authority over property matters in civil and tribunals and financial remedies in family law.

Phase one of the Spending Review was completed in autumn 2024 and focused on settling funding for 2025-26. Phase two, which is currently ongoing, includes a zero-based review of current spending, examining value for money across the organisation.

The final return for the Spending Review is due in April 2025, which will settle funding for 2026-27 through to 2028-29 for resource and up to 2029-30 for capital. HMCTS is awaiting the Chancellor’s announcement on the outcomes which is expected in June 2025.

HMCTS outlined levels of engagement and information submitted to the Leveson Review.

3. Justice-Wide Intermediaries and Lay Advocate Project

The team presented information about the intermediary service and the lay advocacy service. The presentation covered the context behind both services, what they aim to do and the distinctions between both services. It also aimed to gauge awareness, experiences and views on these services within legal professional organisations.

Intermediaries are impartial communication specialists whose primary responsibility is to enable complete, coherent and accurate communication with vulnerable witnesses, defendants and parties within the justice system. Their role includes assessing and reporting on communication needs and implementing measures to meet those needs during court hearings or preparations.

Lay advocates focus on providing emotional support to vulnerable individuals, unlike intermediaries who facilitate specialist communication functions. Their role may include helping individuals understand choices and consequences and completing required forms.

Presenters requested feedback from the legal professional associations on levels of awareness of the services and experiences of using them.

4. Common Platform update

The Crime team provided an update on the Common Platform, detailing its achievements, current status and future plans as the programme transitions to a business-as-usual state by the end of March 2025.

All criminal courts are live on Common Platform. Since implementation, over 2 million cases have been received through the system, with 1.9 million disposals in magistrates’ courts and 143,000 in the Crown Court. The platform has received and actioned over 3,200 pieces of individual feedback.

The team outlined several developments scheduled before the end of the Reform Programme including Single Justice Service traffic implementation, workflow tranches on internal processes only with no defence impact, scheduling and listing in-house solution with no defence impact, and onboarding further non-police prosecutors including DVSA and Great Western Railway.

Beyond March 2025, HMCTS remains committed to continually improving Common Platform. The focus will be on enhancing the platform to support legal and court processes while improving user experience and resolving technical issues.

5. MoJ Call for Evidence: Open Justice, the way forward and summary of responses

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) presented findings from their call for evidence on open justice. The presentation provided key findings across multiple areas and outlined next steps for policy development.

The research found that open justice principles remain important but advised they required a balanced implementation. Some of the issues identified include the benefits and risks of broadcasting court proceedings, barriers to accessing court documents, transparency concerns with the Single Justice Procedure and the need for improved public legal education.

Respondents reported that digital innovations such as remote observation and centralised judgment databases showed potential but highlighted challenges including privacy risks, access costs, and inconsistent data formats.

The study’s findings were being shared across the department to inform policy and operational improvements.

6. Any other business

The chair outlined plans for the two-week concluding Reform Programme communications campaign starting on 24 March 2025 to mark its formal conclusion as HMCTS transitions to a strategy of continuous improvement.

The campaign will celebrate achievements, acknowledge challenges and outline future plans for HMCTS. Content will include case studies on GOV.UK, blog posts, videos, a podcast and various social posts.

7. Next meeting

The next meeting will be on 3 June 2025.