Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps their Department is taking to improve its digital services to provide better (a) accessibility and (b) user experience for the public.

Government Digital Service (GDS) continues to monitor legal accessibility compliance across the public sector and The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) monitors adherence to the Service Standard and Design Standard, all of which set out minimum requirements for user experience and accessibility and are formally monitored by CDDO through its Service Assessment process.

The department has a Digital Accessibility team, which undertakes a variety of activities to help ensure accessibility is baked into digital products in line with these standards. We arrange accessibility audits against WCAG 2.1 to level AA, to assess compliance with legislation, and we provide a consultancy to help troubleshoot accessibility challenges throughout build.

We also ensure that we are complying with wider regulations such as Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018

In summary, we are determined to be an inclusive government department and exercise this through designing and delivering inclusive services. Where possible we design out barriers that users may face and, where they cannot, we develop support so that users can access our services.

The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) leads the Government Digital and Data function; this includes setting strategy and direction for the improvement of digital services and understanding current performance. CDDO is working proactively with departments to ensure that public services meet the requirements set out in the framework, in order to move them to ‘Great’ standard.

Our digital services in the MoJ are developed in line with these standards. Teams developing our digital services include User Researchers who conduct discovery research to understand the needs of users. They also carry out iterative cycles of research as the service is developed to ensure the service is easy to use, accessible and meets the user needs that have been identified. This research informs the ongoing user-centred design and development of digital service.

In areas like HMCTS, we are also deploying leading edge solutions, in partnership with world leaders in the tech arena, to deliver continuous sustained benefits to the end user experience. Finally, our cyber risk teams ensure robust data security and privacy measures to protect user information thereby delivering a safe personalised experience to end users.

In general, GOV.UK’s strategy aims to improve the overall user experience by making it quicker and easier for users to access information and services, in formats and channels of their choice.