Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February 2018 to Question 125455, on Courts: ICT, whether access to justice will be used as a criterion to assess the performance of contractors other than PwC for the delivery of digital courts reform contracts.

Access to justice is not currently used as a criterion to assess the performance of current contracts with suppliers.

It may be used in the future to monitor performance of suppliers, but due to the complexities of measuring the effectiveness of this and what the supplier’s contribution to access to justice would be, the mechanism and methodology would need extensive research and management.

The department does however have enabling contracts in place, which are intended to promote and contribute towards access to justice. One such example of this is a contract with the ‘Good Things Foundation.’ This Service is for the development, testing and implementation of the customer’s future face to face assisted digital service for HMCTS. This will support the ICT access needs of digitally excluded and less digitally able users. This assistance will consist of helping users to complete specified digital processes, such as help with online form completion, online payments, and online submission of evidence and other documentation.

Our in house call agents will also be trained to identify assisted digital callers and will help direct callers into the support channel which best suits the callers’ needs and abilities.