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What utter nonsense, and how much has been wasted so far?

They already have - and have had for circa 10 years - an online system which links to the county court's "CaseMan". It is Possession Claims Online - PCOL. It's far from ideal, but it is a step up from MCOL / SDT (the existing online Civil Claims offering), in that you can correspond with the court online and view all the court orders and documents online.

Why on earth not just improve PCOL and expand it bit by bit to further categories of claim?

Each procedural step in the claim could be interfaced with a link to the relevant rules. CPR Part 27 could be simplified, and expanded to £25,000 if necessary.

Remember how the original Small Claims court was introduced by bodging together Heath Robinson style some little used provisions of the old County Court Rules which allowed for Arbitration and for a Registrar to sit as Arbitrator?

Within the existing CPR you could, for example, introduce a compulsory stay after issue, but before service, of a Claim, and that could form the "Triage" stage. Already some basic procedural orders can legally be made by "Legal Advisors" rather than judges, and the court can order a matter be dealt with without a physical hearing - CPR 27.10. Currently this is if the parties agree, but this could be changed to in all cases given the right of appeal to a Circuit Judge if there are grounds.

This could be implemented pretty much in six months, all for a fraction of the cost being poured down the drain of consultants and "building Lego bricks".

So the real question has to be:- why?