Nine years into a billion-pound programme to computerise the courts service, fewer than a quarter of civil cases are handled digitally from end to end, the master of the rolls told MPs this week. Sir Geoffrey Vos was giving evidence to the House of Commons Justice Committee's inquiry into the work of the county court. 

Describing the continued reliance on paper as a 'terrible shame', Vos said: 'I am very disappointed that we are going to reach the end of reform with only 23% of cases beginning and ending with digital, and the rest ending up on paper.' The reliance on overlapping legacy computer systems which cannot communicate with each other causes delays to parties and frustration to the 'truly heroic' court staff, he said. 

Despite these problems, the head of civil justice said 'in most parts of the country county courts are running effiiciently'. He identified three 'hot spots of inefficiency' currently being tackled: at the Civil National Business Centre in Northampton, Central London County Court, which 'certainly requires interventions' and the shortage of salaried district judges in the southeast and London.

Sir Geoffrey Vos, master of the rolls, addresses the LawtechUK conference

Sir Geoffrey Vos: Continued reliance on paper as a 'terrible shame'

Source: Michael Cross

Describing delays at Northampton as 'quite unacceptable' Vos said that 'the solution to many of these problems is in fact taking the paper away and ceasing to move around files which delays everything by weeks and weeks.'

Challenged by committee chair Andy Slaughter on why his figure for digitised cases differs from the 61% claimed by HM Courts & Tribunals Service, Vos said the official figure 'does not really mean anything'. It is compiled by counting the number of tasks a judge undertakes, with a two-minute application dealt with on the screen given the same score as a three-day trial. 

The reform programme, which began in 2016, is due to end this month. Vos, who appeared alongside Lord Justice Colin Birss, deputy head of civil justice, said he is 'contributing urgently' to the Ministry of Justice's bids for continued funding for modernisation in the next spending round. 

Courts minister Sarah Sackman KC MP is expected to appear before the committee next month.