Blow for open justice

A digital archive that helped journalists track criminal court cases is being shut down by the Ministry of Justice.

Courtsdesk will reportedly be deleted within days after HM Courts & Tribunals Service ordered every record wiped. The platform had been used by more than 1,500 reporters from 39 media outlets to search magistrates’ court lists and registers, but the move has triggered warnings that important cases could now go unreported.

Courtsdesk says it repeatedly found the media wasn’t being told about hearings, with two-thirds of courts regularly hearing cases without notifying journalists.

The platform was launched in 2020 following an agreement with HMCTS and approval by the Lord Chancellor and former Justice Minister Chris Philp, but HMCTS issued a cessation notice in November citing “unauthorised sharing” of court information.

Courtsdesk founder Enda Leahy said the company wrote to government agencies 16 times trying to save the service. It asked for the matter to be referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office but says that request went nowhere, and former Philp himself approached current courts minister Sarah Sackman asking for the archive not to be deleted. The government refused last week.

Leahy told The Times that HMCTS couldn’t do what Courtsdesk did. She pointed to figures showing the court service’s own records were accurate just 4.2% of the time and that 1.6 million criminal hearings went ahead without any advance notice to the press.

“We built the only system that could tell journalists what was actually happening in the criminal courts,” she said.

An HMCTS spokesperson said the press would continue to have full access to court information to support accurate reporting.