To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the HM Courts & Tribunals Service Common Platform roll-out on (1) the delivery of justice, and (2) staff morale.
Answered on
25 May 2022
We have rolled out Common Platform to 112 criminal courts in England and Wales. It has already improved the format and timeliness of outcomes of hearings generated and shared with our criminal justice partner agencies and removed the need for staff to rekey information across different IT systems. In the Magistrates’ court, information about cases is now in a single place enabling collaborative working, updating information in real time, and creating efficiencies. The additional functionality currently being developed will bring more efficiencies and we will continue to monitor the impact of these on the delivery of justice.
We have designed the Common Platform in partnership with our key stakeholders and continue to release further improvements and functionality. When new functionality is implemented, we gather feedback from users to identify and prioritise improvements.
We support our workforce through the implementation of Common Platform and their health, safety and wellbeing is taken extremely seriously. At an organisational level, we have carried out a Change Impact Assessment, Public Sector Equality Analysis and a Workforce Equality Analysis, which remain under regular review. Alongside that, the Civil Service People Survey provides a real understanding of how HMCTS is managing change.