The UK Parliament's Justice Committee has announced an upcoming evidence session with the Lady Chief Justice, Rt Hon Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, scheduled for 26 November 2024. This session, following the publication of her annual report, will examine the work of the first female President of the Courts of England and Wales and address key issues facing the judiciary. The cross-party committee, chaired by Andy Slaughter MP, is expected to explore topics including the Concordat process, Crown Court backlogs, civil and family justice reforms, the impact of legislation on tribunals and the HMCTS reform programme. Additional areas of discussion may encompass judicial capacity, conduct and safety concerns.

The House of Commons Justice Committee has published the government’s response to its report on the Courts and Tribunals Bill, welcoming plans to remove provisions establishing a Crown Court Bench Division for certain judge-only trials but raising concerns about the capacity of magistrates’ courts to accommodate the remaining reforms. The Ministry of Justice says it intends to table an amendment removing the Bench Division provisions and maintains that its recruitment plans will support the expansion of magistrates’ court capacity, including a target of 21,000 magistrates by 2028–29 and recruitment of additional district judges and legal advisers.

In a speech to Commonwealth Solicitors General, Justice Henshaw of the English High Court outlined recent developments in arbitration law and the upcoming Arbitration Act 2025. The speech covered the courts' approach to arbitration challenges, noting only two successful challenges from 118 applications in 2023/2024, developments in cases where parties breach arbitration agreements through foreign proceedings and key changes in the new Act including provisions on emergency arbitrators, third-party powers and the law governing arbitration agreements defaulting to the seat's law unless expressly agreed otherwise.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published the notes from the Inter-Ministerial Group for Justice (IMGJ) meeting held on 3 July 2025, which was attended both in person and via videoconference. The IMGJ provides a forum for regular ministerial discussions on justice matters between the UK government, Welsh Government, Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Department of Justice. The meeting, hosted by the UK government and chaired by Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice, Lord Ponsonby, was attended by ministers responsible for justice from the devolved administrations. Discussions covered topics such as prison capacity, court case loads and legal aid. The IMGJ also agreed to discuss the addition of two new agenda items: a standing item on digital modernisation and innovation, including artificial intelligence, and a proposal to include violence against women and girls on the agenda for the next meeting. The next IMGJ meeting is expected to take place in approximately four months and will be hosted by the Welsh Government.

The Justice Secretary has announced amendments to the Courts and Tribunals Bill to remove proposals for some criminal trials to be heard without a jury. Jury trials would be retained for most Crown Court cases, while lengthy and technical fraud and financial offences would remain eligible for judge-alone trials. Other proposed reforms would give magistrates powers to impose longer sentences and courts the final say on where cases are heard, including where a defendant seeks a jury trial for a relatively minor offence. The MoJ says these measures, alongside investment in court technology and resources for judges, are intended to reduce delays. The Bill is due to return to the House of Commons on 13 October 2026 and will include a statutory commitment to consider the effects of structural reforms on ethnic minorities and people from different backgrounds, with the assessment led by an independent reviewer.

Law360: The UK's Justice Secretary said on 18 July 2024 she will seek to remove the head of the body that investigates miscarriages of justice because of concerns that she is 'unfit to fulfill her duties' after a report exposed failings in the handling of the review of a historical conviction.

Justice Together has published a report by Jo Wilding examining the ongoing crisis in immigration and asylum legal advice across the UK. Updating her 2023 findings, the report analyses legal aid and other low-cost advice provision in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, highlighting a significant gap between need and access—most notably a 57% shortfall in legal aid coverage for asylum cases in England and Wales. The report attributes the growing demand to systemic pressures, legislative complexity, and a hostile political climate, noting serious implications for access to justice.

A magistrate including a lay magistrate or a District Judge sitting in the magistrates’ court.

A court that hears cases concerned with minor crime within the Sheriffdom where it sits.

Justice has published a report ‘Beyond the Blame Game: A responsible and rights-centred approach to government contracting’, which has looked at current government contracting across local and central government. Key findings as reported by Justice include: that individual service users and their rights are ignored when services are contracted out; central government and local authorities do not have proper information about the quality of outsourced public services and are often unaware of rights abuses until too late; and, contracts do not adequately protect individual service users, and some local authorities are contracting out assessments without even a written contract. Justice have also made five recommendations to create a ‘rights-centred and responsible approach to government contracting’. These recommendations include: increasing early engagement to better assess services and possible problems/solutions; emphasising value during procurement; using contracts to ensure rights compliance, clarify responsibilities for both parties and provide accountability; pro-actively manage contracts through monitoring and oversight mechanisms; and, improving transparency and accountability for better governance, better decision-making and learning points.

The justice system describes the institutions, processes and laws through which the state prevents, investigates, prosecutes, adjudicates and enforces legal rights and obligations. It is a descriptive term, not usually defined in legislation or case law, but widely used in criminal justice, civil justice and public law contexts across England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland. In practice, the justice system encompasses: the police and investigative bodies; public prosecution services; criminal, civil, family and administrative courts and tribunals; the judiciary and juries; legal aid and legal representation; prisons, probation and youth justice; and regulatory and oversight bodies (for example, inspectorates, ombuds and human rights institutions). Usage and underlying concepts are broadly consistent across the four jurisdictions, but the structures are distinct: each has its own court hierarchy, prosecution service, legal aid framework and penal institutions, and Ireland operates within a separate constitutional and EU law framework. For legal practitioners, “justice system” is often used when addressing access to justice, systemic delay, court reform, judicial independence, rule of law compliance, human rights standards and the effectiveness of remedies and enforcement.

Law360: The US Supreme Court on 24 June 2024 declined to hear a challenge by Irish businessman Sean Dunne and his ex-wife Gayle Killilea to a Chapter 7 trustee's roughly US$23m avoidance action win, leaving intact a Connecticut jury verdict and a Second Circuit rejection of the onetime couple's claims.