Christina Rees – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding of Lord Justice Briggs in his report entitled, Civil Courts Structure: Interim Report, published in December 2015, that personal injury should be excluded from the Online Court.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The Government welcomes Lord Justice Briggs’s interim report on the review of civil court structures. Our courts and tribunals are antiquated and need urgent reform. We are considering the recommendations of the interim report and will also pay close attention to the content of Lord Justice Briggs’s final report. Our work to reform the courts and tribunals includes consideration of a range of innovative approaches to provide more effective access to justice. In particular we want to make better use of technology to provide simpler court processes. As part of this we will consider the extent to which technology can be used to resolve some of the most complex cases, including personal injury claims.

Lord Justice Briggs has undertaken extensive consultation as part of his Review. In addition to this, the Government will continue to engage and consult with the judiciary, practitioners and court users on our wider programme to reform the courts and tribunals.