Transparency data

Chair’s Summary – Strategic Engagement Group Meeting 28 September 2021

Published 12 October 2021

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

1. Introduction

A summary of the discussion of the Strategic Engagement Group (StratEG) meeting held on 28 September 2021. The meeting was held by video, rather than face-to-face due to the pandemic.

Members of the Bar Council, Law Society and Chartered Institute of Legal Executives met with the jurisdictional leads for HMCTS’ Court Reform Programme and the HMCTS Corporate Relations Team for the latest 8 - weekly update and discussion.

The chair opened the meeting and outlined the agenda.

2. Court reform

The group received an update from each jurisdiction including on the impact of the pandemic on project delivery and a presentation on national roll-out of the Family Public Law Digital Service – update on service mandation.

The reform plan update reported that the Adoption project plans in the civil, family and tribunal (CFT) jurisdiction had paused but will re-commence in October. Family Public Law milestones were on track for mandation of the digital service in 2022. Wifi milestones were on track with 216 courts in soft go-live and 4 more will be added in October. Common Platform rollout had been paused, and the pause has been extended in consultation with the Senior Presiding Judge. Rollout is planned to commence mid-October. There has been good feedback on the Social Security and Child Support Digital Hearing, the release is continuing in October. Universal Credit benefit appeals can be lodged digitally, either via the Submit Your Appeal service or bulk scanning. The Damages service went live in May, on-boarding of legal firms is increasing. Digital links to the south-west and Wales region are on track, as are the CFT and crime programmes. A draft Birmingham Video Hearings evaluation report has been received. The Future Operations wifi project rollout at Bristol and Guildford is complete and the sites are live; training and development is ongoing.

In the Future Hearings jurisdiction, the Video Hearing (VH) pilot at Birmingham has concluded, data gathering is continuing and will inform further development. VH rollout will be tribunal by tribunal, development will be bespoke. Preparations are in progress to firm up implementation plans for civil and family jurisdictions. Video Hearing Service (VHS) will replace Cloud Video Platform (CVP) next year.

HMCTS Video Hearings Service: guidance for joining a hearing.

More devices can be used to access hearings via the VHS, technical work is in progress and should be compatible in October.

In the civil and family jurisdictions, pilots at Oxford County Court and Havant Justice Centre will go live with ListAssist in January, pending staff and judges being trained. Work continuing on the Publications & Information Hub. Legal professionals can use the existing service.

In the crime jurisdiction, there is a focus on increasing capacity and maximising use of capability. For the 2021/22 financial year, the aim is to maximise the scope of sitting days in magistrates’ courts. In addition to temporary Crown Courts, there are 300 jury trial rooms, 70 courtrooms – including for multi-handler trials, two super courts, in Loughborough plus one other. In advance of temporary operating hours being adopted nationally, a pilot was tested at seven sites with flexible operating hours/COVID operating hours.

Consultation on ‘COVID operating hours’ in Crown Courts.

The family jurisdiction reported that the development work on Family Private Law which started in early 2021 provided strong footing for the project. New supplier had been on-boarded and the service will provide a portal for solicitors and an end-to-end system; there is no timescale at this stage. Adoption project will recommence next week following a pause. It should not take long to deliver an end-to-end digital service.

The tribunals jurisdiction advised that in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber (IAC), Pay by Account was successfully released mid-July. Dates are planned for a digital service for online IAC exemptions, remissions and manage a fee for legal representatives. The Appellant in Person (AIP) service released in August produced 57 appeals, most for European cases. Online card payment for AIP is planned for October. Immigration bail application decisions are awaited. Special projects in the Employment Tribunal have been taken forward and will go through the working group and judiciary for design work.

3. Family Public Law Digital Service update

The presentation on Family Public Law (FPL) Digital Service and mandation of the service reported that the first cohort of 3 sites and the second cohort of 7 sites are onboarded and complete for mandation. Nine of the final cohort of 12 sites have been onboarded and remaining planned for completion in December 2021. Cohorts 4 and 5 are planned for completion in November 2021. Project closure, hand over to business as usual, is planned for September 2021 for tech and January 2022 for mandation activity. A programme board will be scheduled in January for a decision on the full closure of the FPL project once all sites have been mandated.

4. HMCTS stakeholder engagement strategy

HMCTS has published a comprehensive update on our stakeholder engagement activities over the last 18 months.

The chair reminded the group about the wearing of face covering/face masks as a safety measure in HMCTS court and tribunal buildings particularly in enclosed spaces and asked legal professionals to convey this message to their members.

5. Next meeting

The next strategic engagement group meeting is scheduled for 23 November 2021. Presentations at the meeting are pending confirmation.

The group agreed to hold the next meeting virtually by video on MS Teams; the position will be reviewed at each meeting.

Caroline Olaiya
Head of Corporate Relations, HMCTS
Chair of Strategic Engagement Group