A body that runs courts in England and Wales has been accused of an IT bug ‘cover up’ after a malfunction caused evidence to go missing, be overwritten or appear lost.
An internal report leaked to the BBC found the body took several years to react to the malfunction.
The bug was part of a case-management software used by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) agency that administers courts in England and Wales and tribunals throughout the UK.
The software is used to track cases and manage evidence before courts and is used by judges, lawyers, case workers and members of the public – it is known as Judicial Case Manager, MyHMCTS or CCD.
Sources within HMCTS say the bug led to judges in civil, family and tribunal courts making rulings on cases where evidence was incomplete.
It also found that HMCTS management decided not to inform judges and lawyers because it would be ‘more likely to cause more harm than good’.
The bug also caused data to be obscured from view, meaning contact details, medical records and other evidence were at times not visible when case files were used in court.
It is thought that the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal has been the most affected.
HMCTS says its internal investigation found no evidence that ‘any case outcomes were affected as a result of these technical issues’.
The former head of the High Court’s family division, Sir James Munby, told the BBC: ‘These hearings often decide the fate of people’s lives.
‘An error could mean the difference between a child being removed from an unsafe environment or a vulnerable person missing out on benefits.’
Allegedly several sources within the HMCTS likened the situation to the Horizon Post Office scandal, with one person telling the BBC that there is a ‘culture of cover-ups’.
The risk to proceedings of the bug was initially categorised as ‘high’ but an initial manual investigation by a team within HMCTS only reviewed a subset of the most recent three months’ worth of cases heard by the SSCS Tribunal.
Only 17 per cent of cases identified as having potential issues were selected for further investigation and it was decided that the risk to all cases was low.
However, leaked documents revealed that an HMCTS employee was so concerned by the situation they complained, which led to further internal investigation.
This later report, led by a senior IT professional from the Prison Service was internally distributed in November 2024 and eventually leaked to the BBC.
It found ‘large scale’ data breached that should have been addressed ‘as soon as they were known’.
Investigators concluded that because HMCTS had not undertaken a comprehensive investigation, the full extent of data corruption was still unknown
This included if case outcomes had been affected.
The report also said that data loss incidents continue to be raised against the IT system used by the civil, family and tribunal courts.
In a statement, an HMCTS spokesperson told the BBC that ‘parties and judges involved in these cases always had access to the documents they needed’.