Courts boss ‘sorry’ for not escalating IT bug to judges sooner

The head of the courts service in England and Wales has apologised for failing to tell ministers and judges sooner about an IT bug that caused evidence to go missing, be overwritten or appear lost.

Nick Goodwin, chief executive of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), said he recognised the issue should have been escalated “sooner” in a letter sent to the chair of the Commons’ Justice Committee.

The BBC revealed in August the existence of the IT bug affecting a database used by civil, family and tribunal courts in England and Wales.

A technical issue called “concurrency” was impacting the Core Case Data (CCD) system, introduced in 2018.

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.

When multiple users worked on the same case file simultaneously, some documents could be hidden from view, and not all changes would be saved.

This meant documents prepared for tribunal hearings might not be visible to court users – including judges – potentially affecting the outcome of cases.

The problem largely affected computer systems used by the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) tribunal, which handles benefit appeals, and was first discovered in 2023 – though some technical issues were identified as far back as 2020.

“I recognised that any errors in the justice system – whether human or technical – can create anxiety and reduce trust,” Mr Goodwin wrote in the six-page letter.

“If our handling of this issue has led to trust being compromised in any way, then I would like to offer my apologies”.

Alex Chalk, the former Conservative justice secretary who held that post until July 2024, says he was never informed about the IT bug.

Mr Goodwin’s letter says the concurrency issue was fixed earlier this year but an independent review of more than 700,000 SSCS cases heard between 2018 and 2025 has found 1,389 were identified as potentially affected.

Of these cases, 10 had documents missing and are now being examined by judges to see if the outcomes were affected, Mr Goodwin writes, adding: “I am sorry that we did not identify these cases and take action to refer them back to the judiciary sooner.”

“Finally a full and rigorous investigation has taken place, but it should not have had to be dragged out of the agency,” Chalk told BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 Investigates programme before the release of Mr Goodwin’s letter.

One case was missing a document that could have affected its outcome, HMCTS told the BBC. Those involved are being offered the opportunity for the case to be reheard.

Too much time had passed on another seven cases to properly determine if they were affected, but Mr Goodwin says these will also be referred to the judiciary and those involved contacted.

In his letter, the chief executive says notification to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is a decision for the MoJ rather than HMCTS. The ICO has since asked HMCTS a number of questions, which it is answering.

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