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Almost 700,000 legal cases deciding on benefits and child support are being re-evaluated, a government minister has confirmed. after it bug This may destroy important evidence.
in August, it was revealed A technical problem in the HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) database may cause documents to be missing or overwritten. A report leaked to the BBC revealed that the service was aware of the data corruption, but did not know its full extent, nor had a thorough investigation been conducted.
An HMCTS source said there was a “culture of concealment” in the service, with the document revealing that management had decided not to tell lawyers or judge Of the issue.
The leak also revealed that HMCTS had conducted an internal investigation, which revealed “large-scale” data breaches, which should have been addressed “as soon as discovered”. However, it also said that the service took years to respond, despite warnings from technical staff since 2019.
Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) is understood to be most affected by the issue. The court considers appeals benefits And maintenance of the child.
Following the disclosure, HMCTS reviewed 455 potentially affected samples casesA finding where a missing document would have affected the outcome of the case, as confirmed by a judge.
The parties involved in the case have been contacted and given the opportunity to request that the decision be set aside and the case be reheard. Justice Minister Sarah Sackman said.
The Labor MP also confirmed that around 700,000 cases affected across the period will now be investigated. If the same proportion of affected cases is found in the sample, this would be approximately 1,500 affected cases.
Responding to a parliamentary question from Conservative MP Andrew Snowden, Ms Sackman said: “As assurance work continues, HMCTS will contact any additional parties who may be affected by the outcome of the case.
“The CEO of HMCTS will write to the Justice Select Committee setting out the total number of cases affected, the parties contacted and the outcome of any follow-up action after the assurance process has concluded.”
Liberal Democrat shadow Attorney General, Ben Maguire MP, said: “It is shocking to learn that up to 700,000 cases could be affected by HMCTS IT.” wormThis appears to be a potentially catastrophic failure which is damaging and completely unacceptable.
“Our justice system It was the envy of the world, but after years of mismanagement and underinvestment under the previous Conservative government it is struggling with huge backlogs and delays, leaving it on the brink.
“The Government must launch a full independent investigation to uncover any miscarriages of justice caused by the loss of evidence. Something like this can never happen again, and ministers must take immediate action to restore confidence in our justice system.”