Courts Service Covered Up IT Bug that Caused Evidence to go Missing
The body running courts in England and Wales has been accused of a cover-up, after a leaked report found it took several years to react to an IT bug that caused evidence to go missing, be overwritten or appear lost.
Sources within HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) say that as a result, judges in civil, family and tribunal courts will have made rulings on cases when evidence was incomplete.
The internal report, leaked to the BBC, said HMCTS did not know the full extent of the data corruption, including whether or how it had impacted cases, as it had not undertaken a comprehensive investigation.
It also found judges and lawyers had not been informed, as HMCTS management decided it would be “more likely to cause more harm than good”.
HMCTS says its internal investigation found no evidence that “any case outcomes were affected as a result of these technical issues”.
However, the former head of the High Court’s family division, Sir James Munby, told the BBC the situation was “shocking” and “a scandal”.
The bug was found in case-management software used by HMCTS, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) agency which administers many courts in England and Wales, and tribunals across the UK.
The software – known variously as Judicial Case Manager, MyHMCTS or CCD – is used to manage evidence and track cases before the courts. It is used by judges, lawyers, case workers and members of the public.
Documents seen by the BBC show it caused data to be obscured from view, meaning medical records, contact details and other evidence were sometimes not visible as part of case files used in court.
The Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal – which handles benefit appeals – is thought to have been most affected.
Sources have told the BBC that bugs have also impacted case management software used by other courts – including those dealing with family, divorce, employment, civil money claims and probate.
“These hearings often decide the fate of people’s lives,” Sir James Munby told the BBC. “An error could mean the difference between a child being removed from an unsafe environment or a vulnerable person missing out on benefits.”
The BBC has spoken to several separate sources within HMCTS who liken the situation to the Horizon Post Office scandal, where executives tried to suppress evidence of the system’s flaws.
One says there was “general horror” at the design of the software, introduced by HMCTS in 2018, which they claim was “not designed properly or robustly” and had a long history of data loss.
Another says there was a general reluctance from senior management to “acknowledge or face the reality” of the situation, despite repeated warnings from the agency’s IT staff.
“There is a culture of cover-ups,” one told the BBC. “They’re not worried about risk to the public, they’re worried about people finding out about the risk to the public. It’s terrifying to witness.”
When asked, the MoJ told us several organisations had been involved in the design and development of the software but did not supply a list.
The BBC has seen documents from the MoJ (obtained through Freedom of Information requests), including emails where the severity of the SSCS issue was discussed.
A briefing prepared for the chief executive of HMCTS – dated March 2024 – reveals the risk to proceedings was initially categorised as “high” with the possibility of court outcomes being adversely affected assessed as “very likely”, resulting in “severe reputational impact to HMCTS”.
However, an initial manual investigation by a team within HMCTS reviewed only a subset of the most recent three months’ worth of cases heard by the SSCS Tribunal, even though the bug was thought to have been in the system for several years.