Message from Mr Justice Nicklin: Update on the Transparency and Open Justice Board

This report on the work of the Transparency and Open Justice Board is published on the second anniversary of it being created by the Lady Chief Justice.

Since being established in April 2024, the Board has progressed from setting foundational principles to supporting their practical delivery. Its work continues to be directed towards strengthening transparency and open justice across the courts and tribunals in England and Wales.

This update highlights key milestones reached over the past year and sets out the Board’s priorities for 2026-2027.

Key objectives

Between December 2024 and February 2025, the Board undertook a public engagement to test and refine its proposed key objectives. That engagement informed the publication of a settled set of key objectives, intended to provide a common reference point across jurisdictions and to guide how the principles of transparency and open justice should be promoted consistently.

The final key objectives, together with the Board’s formal response to the public engagement, were published in July 2025. They set out high-level principles aimed at ensuring that court proceedings and judicial decisions are accessible to the public and the media, including through appropriate access to hearings, judgments, and court documents.

From principles to implementation: Change Impact Assessment

The Board has now entered the implementation phase of its work through the development and delivery of a Change Impact Assessment. This assessment supports practical alignment with the Board’s key objectives across courts and tribunals in all jurisdictions, identifying where current arrangements are already aligned and where further improvement is required.

Each jurisdiction is assessed using a traffic light framework:

  • Green where current arrangements are aligned with the objectives;
  • Amber where limited improvement may be required; and
  • Red where more significant legal, procedural or resource barriers may arise.

This work is being taken forward through jurisdiction-specific working groups, with Board members working directly with the courts and tribunals to validate and refine initial assessments. Jurisdictions are invited to confirm, amend or challenge these assessments, and to identify both early opportunities for improvement and longer-term priorities. The emphasis is on ensuring that “green” assessments reflect genuine alignment with the key objectives, and that areas requiring further attention are identified with clarity and candour.

This programme of work will be the Board’s principal focus throughout 2026, providing a structured and transparent roadmap for embedding agreed improvements across the justice system.

Improving access to information and proceedings

Alongside this system-wide work, the Board has continued to progress several practical initiatives.

The Access to Core Documents pilot in the Court of Appeal (Civil Division), which ran from April to July 2025, demonstrated that greater documentary openness can be achieved in a controlled and proportionate manner. The pilot was relaunched in February 2026 for a further 12 months, with a new presumption that documents should be published unless a party objects, subject always to judicial control.

A separate pilot to improve public access to documents entering the public domain was launched in January 2026. Running in the Commercial Court, London Circuit Commercial Court and the Financial List, this initiative requires parties to re-file key documents – such as skeleton arguments, witness statements, and expert reports) – on the digital case management system CE-File, to support public access.

Following the success of broadcasting of hearings in the Court of Appeal and certain sentencing hearings in the Crown Court, work is also underway to extend broadcasting to the Administrative Court. The proposed approach would broadly mirror the established Court of Appeal model, with an initial focus on broadcasting rather than live streaming. Under this model, third-party broadcasters would apply for permission to film proceedings, subject to judicial approval. Subject to Parliament’s approval, this is expected to progress from early 2027.

In April 2026, HMCTS introduced regional Open Justice Champions to act as consistent points of contact for judges, staff, the media, and the public, providing practical support on matters such as access to hearings, including remote access. Work is in progress to establish a streamlined process for contacting the Champions, which is expected to be in place by summer 2026.

Publishing decisions

Efforts are progressing to improve the publication of decisions of the First-tier Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber (FtTIAC). Options for an initial pilot are under active consideration, alongside longer-term solutions to support sustainable publication arrangements.

Looking ahead

The focus for 2026-2027 is therefore firmly on delivery, ensuring that agreed improvements to transparency and open justice are implemented consistently and sustainably across the justice system. The Board will continue to work closely with the judiciary, the jurisdiction and stakeholders to support practical change.

Mr Justice Nicklin
Chair of the Transparency & Open Justice Board

30 April 2026