NAP5 18th May 2021

NAP 5 – Open Justice – Wk 1 – Read out

by Guest

As part of the co-creation process of the UK’s fifth National Action Plan for Open Government (NAP5), thematic areas agreed to during the Multistakeholder Forum in March 2021 have been turned into biweekly Working Groups. These Working Groups bring together government policy leads and civil society, and are charged with developing commitments for inclusion in NAP5.

The first NAP5 Open Justice Working Group was held on May 10, 2021 at 14:00 BST. The meeting was co-chaired by civil society and government.

Suggested areas produced for further discussion are as follows (broadly grouped):

Collaboration:

  • Involvement of the National Archives 
  • Exploration of open justice initiatives internationally
  • Involvement of STGP MoJ board
  • Government commitment to existing recommendations around open justice

Data and Standards:

  • Consistently published, online judgments while maintaining privacy
  • Standards of transparency on justice data
  • Future-proofing the digitisation of open justice 
  • Lack of basic operational data
  • Addressing data backlogs from MOJ
  • Efficiency measuring of court data 
  • Increased coverage of magistrates court data
  • Comprehensive database of legal data
  • Designing legal content with user needs in mind – Lawtoons example

Public involvement:

  • Public legal education on justice system
  • Better use of HMCTS senior governance panel – stakeholder engagement

Transparency:

  • Senior judge appointment transparency
  • App facilitation of access to background information during hearings

Next steps: 

    • The second meeting of the NAP 5 Open Justice Working Group will be held on Monday, May 24th 2021 at 14:00 BST
    • The second meeting is open to all government policy areas or civil society groups with an interest in the Open Justice space

Attendees of the second meeting are asked to come prepared to discuss the above listed suggestions in greater detail

For additional details or to get involved, please contact: