UK Orders Deletion of Country's Largest Court Reporting Archive

Source: Slashdot

Background

The UK’s Ministry of Justice has ordered the deletion of the country’s largest court reporting archive [non‑paywalled source]. The archive was built by data‑analysis company Courtsdesk and has been used by more than 1,500 journalists across 39 media organisations since the Lord Chancellor approved the project in 2021.

Findings

• Journalists received no advance notice of 1.6 million criminal hearings.
• Court‑case listings were accurate on only 4.2 % of sitting days.
• Approximately 500,000 weekend cases were heard without any press notification.

Government Action

In November, HM Courts and Tribunal Service issued a cessation notice, citing “unauthorized sharing” of court data based on a test feature. Courtsdesk reports that it wrote to the Ministry 16 times requesting dialogue and asked for a referral to the Information Commissioner’s Office; no referral was made.

The government issued a final refusal last week, and the archive must now be deleted within days.

Political Response

Chris Philp, the former justice minister who approved the pilot and now Shadow Home Secretary, has written to Courts Minister Sarah Sackman demanding that the decision be reversed.