England: Lammy unveils AI-driven overhaul of courts to speed up justice

Speaking at the Microsoft AI Tour at the Excel Centre in London, Mr Lammy set out plans to expand the use of AI to transcribe hearings, anonymise court documents and summarise judgments, alongside piloting an AI-assisted listing tool designed to replace manual scheduling processes.

The technology push forms the centrepiece of a broader package combining long-term funding guarantees, structural reform and targeted efforts to reduce the backlog in the criminal courts.

AI will be used to transcribe more hearings, including in the Immigration and Asylum Tribunals, and to support administrative functions across HM Courts & Tribunals Service. An AI-assisted listing assistant will be piloted to streamline how cases are scheduled, moving away from pen-and-paper systems and introducing digital scheduling.

At the opening of his speech, Mr Lammy contrasted England and Wales’ courts with those in Canada.

He said: “Recently I visited the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto. It’s a large modern building, digital by design. Purposefully paperless with judge-only trials handling down quick and fair justice for summary and some more offences.

“It’s efficient, orderly and above all it works. Walking through the courthouse, I had an uncomfortable realisation: I felt less like a visitor from another country and more like one from another time, catching a glimpse of what could be. A vision of justice designed for the world as it is, not as it once was.

“We inherited a justice system on the point of collapse in every arena and it falls to us to fix it. To reform the justice system so that it can react.

“Founded on the progressive principles that have underpinned Britain’s criminal justice system for centuries. But shaped with the realism of recognising that this era requires new structures to produce justice that is swift and fair.”

The speech follows confirmation that criminal courts will receive their highest ever level of funding to hear as many cases as possible next year, with no cap on Crown Court sitting days. Magistrates’ courts will also be funded to operate at their highest capacity. For the first time, firm funding commitments have been agreed simultaneously for the next three years.

Alongside the technological reforms, the UK government will take forward measures from part two of Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of Criminal Courts, including the creation of a National Listing Framework to standardise how cases are allocated hearing dates. Ministers say the move will end variations between courts that have been described as a postcode lottery for victims, particularly in serious cases such as rape and sexual offences.

To address the backlog more directly, so-called “Blitz” courts will be used to group similar cases together over concentrated periods, focusing court resources and specialist expertise. The approach is intended to encourage earlier guilty pleas and reduce the risk of court time being lost when cases collapse at short notice.

From April 2026, Blitz courts in London will concentrate on assaults on emergency workers, targeting older cases that have been waiting years to be resolved.

Other measures include expanding the use of specialist case co-ordinators across all Crown Court centres, investing in new video infrastructure to increase online hearings, widening the pool of judges eligible to be filmed when passing sentence, and extending schemes allowing prisoner vans to use bus lanes in more local authority areas.