Despite the efforts underway to bring the courts into the 21st century, a wider audit may still be required, says Roger Smith
You can see why ministers would approve the court modernisation programme. It has been set up to have zero financial risk. To put the underlying argument bluntly: overrun on budget? Flog another court. Even so, the National Audit Office (NAO) and now the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) are sniffing around with concerns. The former counselled that ‘delivering change on this scale at pace means that the HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) risks making decisions before it understands the system-wide consequences’. The latter is just beginning an inquiry to which it has summonsed Richard Heaton and Susan Acland-Hood, the respective heads of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HMCTS.
The concern of the NAO and the PAC is primarily financial. They are worried that the wheeze of court sales will run out of steam and there will be a cost to the treasury after all. As the NAO noted, even in HMCTS plans, ‘there are gaps in the funding for reforms
