NAO report and Common Platform

Early day motion 898, tabled 23 February 2023 by Liz Saville-Roberts (Plaid Cymru). Signed by 31 members.

That this House notes the National Audit Office's report on Progress on the Courts and Tribunals Reform Programme, which identifies numerous areas of concern around the Common Platform case management system, including tens of millions of pounds of financial waste and major problems of functionality and reliability; further notes the NAO's finding that His Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service did not receive sufficient assurance Common Platform was robust before rollout, leading to performance issues, or leave sufficient time to learn from early adopter sites; further notes that thousands of important notifications over a 15-month period failed to send due to system errors, including 35 cases where people were not electronically tagged, while HMCTS recorded 231 critical incidents in eight months affecting users nationally; notes that stakeholders reported the system design made user roles more difficult, with staff finding it stressful to record results of complex cases live in court, while poor software performance and stability led to page timeouts affecting live resulting and other high-risk processes; believes this report validates warnings by the Public and Commercial Services union that Common Platform affects the timeliness and quality of the delivery of justice and causes distress for users, leading to increased staff sickness absence and resignations; applauds PCS members for their ongoing industrial action against Common Platform, with targeted strikes by legal advisers and court associates since October 2022; and calls on the Government and HMCTS to suspend the use of Common Platform until NAO and PCS concerns are fully resolved.

Signatures by party: Labour 21, Labour/Co-operative 3, Plaid Cymru 3, Independent 2, Scottish National Party 2.