With the justice system in England and Wales seemingly in the grip of a long-term crisis, the Foundation brought together a group of experts for a Public Right to Justice (PRTJ) roundtable, asking how it’s really working and what needs to change for justice to function effectively.
The conversation between participants from legal practice, academia, policy, and civil society ranged widely with several themes emerging. Together they helped to identify the root causes of a range of challenges the justice system is struggling with, but also highlighted opportunities for reform.
Lessons from the discussion are informing the Foundation’s PRTJ programme. PRTJ is examining how the civil, family, and administrative justice systems in England and Wales serve the public, where they fall short, and possible solutions to make them more user-centred, responsive, and effective.
Justice as a “non-system”
One of the most striking observations at the roundtable was how justice was described as a fragmented “non-system” with no overarching governance or shared mission beyond broad concepts like access to justice. Civil justice was especially highlighted for its lack of a defined role or agreed measures of success, with this absence of purpose possibly contributing to its low political profile and priority.
There was strong agreement that a clearer vision is needed – one that defines “good justice” in terms of fairness, accessibility, and people’s real experiences – and supported by measures to track performance.
Resources, culture and change
Chronic underfunding, particularly for legal aid and support services, was noted as a barrier to reform, but participants were clear that lack of resources is not the whole story.
Even where problems are well understood, the justice system can be culturally resistant to change. Lessons from past reforms are rarely revisited, and reforms tend to focus narrowly on courts rather than the wider justice ecosystem and often have conflicting goals. The voices of people who use the justice system can go unheard, which means the system misses valuable opportunities to learn from their experiences.
Meanwhile, policy decisions elsewhere also have unintended consequences for justice. Changes in other areas such as social security, special educational needs provision, or immigration and asylum place extra pressure on the justice system without the investment needed to cope, further stretching services.
The development of Family Drug and Alcohol Courts was held up as an example of how person-centred approaches grounded in trust, collaboration and cultural change can lead to better outcomes.
Innovation, data, and evidence
Compared with other public services, justice was described as “innovation-light”. While there are promising local pilots and technology projects, these are rarely scaled or sustained, with investment usually favouring short-term fixes over deeper, systemic change.
Digital tools and AI were seen as having potential, but only if deployed carefully, with concerns raised about accuracy, ethics, governance, and the risk of commercial models operating without safeguards. Participants stressed that innovation, particularly when technology-led, must be grounded in user-centred design and accompanied by wider reform.
Data sits at the heart of change, but while data collection is improving in some areas, justice is far from being a data-driven system. Information is often fragmented, inaccessible, or of poor quality, and key gaps remain, particularly around who uses the justice system.
The underuse of evidence and wider learning pointed towards the need for an independent institution to lead on driving the use of data and research and sharing good practice.
Why public trust matters
Participants spoke about how public trust in justice – whether shaped by direct experience or perception – is critical, both in its own right and its wider implications for the perceived accountability of other institutions.
In reality, most people interact with the justice system only occasionally, if at all, but this makes it even more important to demystify how it works, improve everyday public understanding, and to frame justice as a core service, alongside housing, health, and employment.
The questions we need to consider
The roundtable identified areas for further exploration in the PRTJ programme:
- What do people, including system users, want and value from justice, and how can their views and experiences better inform practice?
- How can efficiency and productivity be achieved without neglecting the human and relational aspects of justice?
- What system conditions are needed to enable effective reform?
- How can the collection and use of good-quality data and evidence be embedded?
- How do we ensure that lessons from past reforms, pilots, and innovations are captured and used?
We will draw the issues raised at the roundtable into our ongoing PRTJ work which is building a clear understanding of the state of the justice system. This will inform our areas of focus for phase two, which will consider the development of proposals for change.
Find out more about Public Right to Justice.
