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Chronic lack of investment and repeated budget-cuts, for which Mr Gove's party is responsible, are a large part of the problem, but HMCTS has added to its difficulties by pursuing a policy of administrative centralisation. The service which solicitors and members of the public used to receive from the better-run courts is no longer available. Court-counters have closed. Experienced members of staff have been sent unwillingly from the smaller courts to the large, where all correspondence must now forwarded and all records are kept. Files, which must be ferried from the administrative centre to the courts where hearings are to take place, not infrequently reach the judge late or not at all. Telephone calls are automatically routed to the administrative centre and often go unanswered. The drawing of simple orders takes weeks. HMCTS was not obliged to adopt this policy; it should be encouraged to reverse it.