There are more strikes causing chaos but this time it is by staff working in the Magistrates Courts. The Magistrates Courts deal with less serious criminal cases.
The court staff are on strike because of an IT system that they are exasperated by. Specifically it is the “HMCTS Common Platform Dispute”. The strikes run from 22nd to 30th October 2022 and you can see the list of courts affected here.
It is our understanding the system was introduced in 2020 and there have been ongoing problems with it, without them being resolved. They must be pretty bad for people to go on strike over it. Most strikes are over pay whereas this is not.
The strikes are causing massive disruption with it reported that very few cases or hearings are going ahead, although urgent work is still getting through. There is already a huge backlog of criminal cases, with this adding to it.
It was hoped that the barrister strikes ending would get things back on track, with there to be a concerted effort to reduce the backlog.
It will be interesting to see what returning Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, does to try to improve things.
