The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ) has published the annual Judicial Office Business Plan for 2024–2025. In the plan, the Judicial Office has outlined its purpose, role and staffing and budgetary resources. The Judicial Office is focused on pursuing the senior judiciary’s three medium-term priorities and associated objectives: recognise and promote the judiciary’s strengths, build judicial unity and reduce backlogs, improve timeliness and maintain quality.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ) has published guidance to assist coroners in identifying key principles, practical considerations and relevant precedents when determining whether an inquest should be conducted in a manner that complies with the procedural obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The guidance outlines the duties imposed by Article 2, the threshold for engagement, and the standards required for an investigation to be considered Article 2 compliant.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ )has published six guidance notes to support the implementation of the Practice Direction on Listing in the criminal courts, which comes into effect on 1 October 2026. The Practice Direction introduces the national listing framework, which aims to promote a more consistent and transparent approach to criminal listing while preserving judicial discretion. The framework's central principle is that the priority given to a case should reflect the impact that delay may have on those involved and on the fairness of proceedings. The six guidance notes cover judicial listing decisions at the plea and trial preparation hearing, the responsibilities of resident judges, presiding judges and listing officers, guidance for practitioners and case progression meetings.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ) website has published new guidance on how to correspond with employment tribunals in England and Wales following the implementation of the MyHMCTS portal system for employment tribunal claims from summer 2024. Cases within this system are identifiable by a unique case number format, beginning with the number 6 followed by six digits, a slash, and the year (eg 6000124/2025). Cases that do not start with the number 6 are not part of the system (eg 1600235/2023). This development requires different communication methods for cases within the new system compared to older cases. It is important to note that Scotland maintains a separate employment tribunal system, with case numbers beginning with 8.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ) has published the minutes of the Employment Tribunals (England and Wales) National User Group meeting held on 7 October 2025.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ) has published the minutes of the Employment Tribunals (England and Wales) National User Group meeting held on 12 March 2026.

The Courts and Tribunal Judiciary (CTJ) has published the minutes of the Employment Tribunals (England and Wales) National User Group meeting held on 30 September 2024 and the minutes of the Employment Tribunals (Scotland) National User Group meeting held on 2 October 2024.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ) has published a protocol formalising an informal resolution route for legal professionals—barristers, solicitors and legal executives—to raise concerns about judicial behaviour. Issued by the Lady Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals, it offers three routes: (1) a direct approach to the judge concerned; (2) an indirect approach via a leadership judge or (3) escalation to the Senior Presiding Judge's office. It does not replace the formal complaints process via the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, which handles more serious concerns such as repeated bullying or patterns of harassment. The protocol forms part of a wider package of measures addressing bullying, harassment and discrimination in courts and tribunals, informed by the Bar Council's 2023 report and Baroness Harman's 2025 independent review.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ) has published the outcome of the Remote Participation Review accompanied by new Overarching Guidance and Judicial Principles documents and guidance on remote participation across specific courts and tribunals. The guidance for the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (IAC) jurisdiction outlines a framework where hearings may be conducted in person or remotely/partially remotely, with judicial discretion applied on a case‑by‑case basis. It establishes detailed procedural rules, such as the mandatory recording of all hearings and a flexible approach when listing cases for consideration, including substantive, interim and bail hearings. Parties may express a preference for the mode of hearing, however, the final decision rests with the judge. The framework also identifies key factors for assessment, including representation of parties, whether there are contested issues requiring the hearing of witness evidence, available technical and physical facilities and the capacity of parties to engage meaningfully with remote proceedings, particularly in situations involving disability or vulnerability.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ) has published a speech by the Deputy Head of Civil Justice, Lord Justice Birss, on ‘Future Visions of Justice’. In the speech, Lord Justice Birss discusses various matters related to the Digital Justice System including: the current use of algorithms in the justice system; the use of digital service replacing paper service of documents; the use of the work allocation tool and digital file built by HM Courts and Tribunals (HMCTS). Lord Justice Birss also touched on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in case summaries and technology assisted review (TAR). Lord Justice Birss concluded his speech by talking about the HMCTS Reform programme, highlighting the Online Procedure Rules Committee’s ability to use common data standards in the pre-action space.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ) has published the speech by Deputy Head of Civil Justice, Lord Justice Colin Birss, titled 'Is a focus on data the way to improve access to justice in a multifaceted world?' The speech was given at the 24th Competition Law Association Burrell Lecture on 30 November 2023. Lord Birss discussed technological advancements, particularly, the development and impact of the internet and mobile telecommunications and access to justice, courts and tribunals and the standards required to operate a digital justice system. Lord Birss highlighted the traditional jurisdiction of bodies in charge of procedural framework for courts and tribunals, namely the Civil Procedure Rules Committee and recent developments of pre-action protocols and the Online Procedure Rule Committee (OPRC) and its power to make provisions about dispute resolution services. Lord Birss also spoke on the Damages Claim Pilot which has taken cases digitally from issue, through defence and to case management directions; the 16 'Early Adopter' courts with end to end systems which allow for cases to be digitally managed from the start, until the final order after the trial has been heard; the 'Online Civil Money Claims' system in which litigants can bring and defend small money claims; and the systems for Family Private Law cases, Family Public Law cases, Social Security and Child Support tribunal and the Employment Tribunal. Lord Birss indicated that the OPRC has the express power to make data standards and has the powers of previous committees and those relating to the relationship between pre-action providers and the court. Lord Birss has acknowledged the need to consider data protection and the possibility of developing specialist systems, such as a specialist IP pre-action online dispute resolution system and a system harnessing the language skills of generative artificial intelligence.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CTJ) has published a speech by the Master of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, on artificial intelligence (AI) titled ‘AI – Transforming the work of lawyers and judges’. The speech was given at the AI Conference 2024: Transforming the Legal Landscape on 8 March 2024. Sir Geoffrey Vos summarised the messages contained in judicial guidance on the use of AI and said that before using generative AI, its abilities must be understood; lawyers and judges should not feed confidential information into public large language models (LLM) as this information would theoretically be made available to the world and when an LLM is used to summarise or write something, the response must be checked before it is used. On how new technologies will affect legal practice, Sir Geoffrey Vos said that specialist legal data LLM’s would be more accurate and anyone using AI programmes must do so skillfully. Sir Geoffrey Vos noted that LLM’s have access to more and different data than humans and its opinion is worth consideration. Additionally, Sir Geoffrey Vos said that there is a need for lawyers to think outside the box as AI is quicker and may be capable of doing tasks more comprehensively than a human. It is therefore unlikely that using AI will be optional. Sir Geoffrey Vos indicated that the law may need to reconsider how liability is allocated ‘in a world of capable AI tools.’ On the topic of judicial use of AI, Sir Geoffrey Vos highlighted that the senior judiciary would not have issued AI guidance if it had not thought that judges could also be assisted by AI tools. In concluding, Sir Geoffrey Vos said that ‘AI has great potential within the digital justice system which promises to provide quicker, cheaper and more efficient ways to resolve the millions of disputes that arise in British society every year.’