Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of procedures for notifying people of County Court proceedings.

The Government has announced plans to implement a reform to allow claimant names to be published on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines. This reform will help people who have county court judgments made against them to identify who to contact about the claim.

The Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC) is responsible for the rules that govern the procedure for notifying people of court proceedings, known as the rules of service. It has recently consulted on changes to the service rules including to permit electronic service on parties with whom there has already been electronic communication pre-action. The CPRC is currently reviewing responses and will make decisions on procedural rule changes in due course.