A lack of accessible, usable data is undermining public confidence in justice and causing policy decisions to be made without full evidence, the Magistrates Association has said. In an advocacy report, Open Data in the Justice System, the association states that 'restrictive access rules and the simple challenge of finding the datasets prevent more widespread use'.

The justice system in England and Wales generates more data than other European jurisdictions, the report notes. 'Yet data is dispersed, fragmented and siloed amongst different government departments and agencies.' For example, it states, it would be impossible to discover the number of defendants who made use of a French-speaking interpreter at Leeds Magistrates' Court in March-November 2025 and had their first hearing delayed for any reason. 

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Lack of data is 'undermining public confidence in justice and causing policy decisions to be made without full evidence'

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Even de-identified data is unnecessarily restricted, the report suggests. Currently anyone applying for such data must apply to the HMCTS Data Access Panel, which gives approvals based on factors such as who will receive the data, for what purpose it will be used and if the research project is aligned to MoJ areas of interest. Such processing takes between eight and 12 weeks. 'Needless to say, this is not an open data approach and imposes a substantial barrier,' the report states. 

Since 2022, only 58 external research projects have used Data First datasets. 'That is an evident underutilisation of data that both already exists and could have tremendous value if accessed and used by a wider population,'  it argues. Under-use 'may suggest that the balance between security and access is not quite correct', the report states, suggesting that the government consider 'an easing of access barriers'.

The report also recommends that the objectives of the HMCTS Transparency and Open Justice Board  be reconsidered to include openness of justice data. It also states that parliament should create a 'presumption of access' for justice system data. Meanwhile an independent inspector should be appointed to conduct and publish an annual review of data practices within the justice system.