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UK Orders Deletion of Court Reporting Platform
The archive, used by over 1,500 journalists, revealed 1.6 million criminal hearings without prior media notice, raising concerns about court transparency and data protection.
- Ordering deletion, the Ministry of Justice ordered Courtsdesk to delete its court-record archive last week after HMCTS issued a cessation notice in November, requiring deletion within days.
- Citing data‑protection concerns, HMCTS shut the pilot approved by the lord chancellor in 2021 without publicly explaining specific issues, and asked for an ICO referral that was not made.
- Courtsdesk's platform was used by journalists from 39 media organisations, with no advance notice for 1.6 million criminal hearings and listing accuracy at just 4.2 per cent.
- As a result, the deletion will make the criminal courts less visible and harder to scrutinise, causing local and regional reporters to miss cases and reducing consistent reporting of criminal courts.
- Since 2020, HMCTS has migrated 37 applications from two outdated datacentres using around 2,500 hardware pieces, amid a £1.6 million CGI extension and a £22.5 million write‑off, recruiting a chief executive with a job ad open until February 15.
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19 Articles
19 Articles
Coverage Details
Total News Sources19
Leaning Left1Leaning Right4Center9Last UpdatedBias Distribution64% Center
Bias Distribution
- 64% of the sources are Center
64% Center
C 64%
R 29%
Factuality
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