Courts and Tribunals Observers’ Network

The fortnight has brought, like buses, two new reports relating to justice system data access.

First, an update from network member and advisor Paul Magrath, on the publication of listed judgments by the National Archives Find Case Law service, in the final report of ICLR’s research:

The National Archives launched its Find Case Law database in mid-April 2022, under a new judgment publication system mandated by the Ministry of Justice. ICLR systematically monitored the publication of listed cases under this new system over its first twelve months of operation. Our report combines statistics for the efficiency and coverage of cases listed for judgment in the Daily Cause List with other publication data, and monitors the relationship between the listing and publication of judgments as part of the overall judgments data ecosystem and its importance to Open Justice.

Magrath and Beresford (ICLR, 2023)

Among the findings is this critical point: “Most of the problems and delays identified in the early days of the service have been resolved. But one main problem remains: not all courts and tribunals are routinely sending their judgments to The National Archives (TNA) for publication.” Read the executive summary and download here.

Related, but taking a broader view, is a second report published by the Institute for Government, Doing Data Justice:

This report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, finds that there are several exciting initiatives to use data in novel ways across criminal, family and civil justice, and there has been progress in recent years, as data and analysis has grown in importance at the MoJ in particular. But effective use of data is undermined by a fragmented system of many different organisations, including the Home Office, MoJ, HMCTS, CPS, CAFCASS and a dizzying array of other acronyms, with different objectives for the use of data, their own systems and their own data practices. This means data is rarely joined up and is not being used to its full potential.

Pope, Freeguard and Metcalfe (IfG, 2023)

The report is wide-ranging in scope across the UK justice system – considering internal as well as external data sharing – and makes a number of sensible recommendations to Government, echoing this network’s call for better representation of civil society and other professional groups in justice data strategy and policy decisions. Read the summary and download here.