HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has acknowledged a ‘bug’ in its software used to manage civil, family and tribunal courts could have resulted evidence going missing, being overwritten or appearing to be lost.
The agency has been accused of a ‘cover up’ over the system failure which a leaked report claims took ‘several years’ to be identified and fixed. The BBC first reported the story, with judges said to have made ‘rulings on cases when evidence was incomplete.’
Former head of the High Court’s family division, Sir James Munby, told the BBC the situation was “shocking” and “a scandal”. Former lord chancellor Alex Chalk described the claims as “unbelievably serious” and warned it could be comparable to the Post Office Horizon scandal.
The leaked documents reportedly show HMCTS did not know the full extent of the data issues, which obscured some evidence from view in case files. Chalk said he was troubled that senior leadership was aware of the problem in March 2024 but did not inform him when he was in office, calling for transparency whenever there is potential injustice in court proceedings. It is also claimed judges and lawyers had not been informed, as HMCTS management decided it would be “more likely to cause more harm than good”.
HMCTS has insisted there is no evidence case outcomes were affected and said that while some documents were not visible to users, they remained on the system and were accessible to parties and judges via fail-safes.
Given the ‘life-changing’ decisions levied by the courts system, Nick Gova, Head of Family at Spector Constant & Williams said the revelations could ‘undermine public confidence in the justice system.’
“The introduction of HMCTS’s case management software was a vital step in bringing court processes into the 21st century, and the investment in new technology was long overdue. But technology in the justice system can only be effective if it is continually monitored, maintained, and developed, especially as we face rapid technological change and increasing cyber risks.”
“This incident highlights the need for robust safeguards and transparency so that any technical issues are identified and addressed immediately, not years later.”
The internal report, leaked to the BBC, said HMCTS did not know the full extent of the data corruption, including whether or how it had impacted cases, as it had not undertaken a comprehensive investigation. An internal investigation into The Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal – the system thought to be most affected – found of 609 cases identified as having potential issues, only 109 (17%) were selected for further investigation. Among those, just one was said to have had “potentially significant impact”; adding standard court procedure would mean that staff would spot any anomalies and manually correct them.
HMCTS says its internal investigation found no evidence that “any case outcomes were affected as a result of these technical issues”.
