Court office staff are going to be reduced according to an announcement by HM Courts and Tribunals Service. It plans to lose around 2.5% of its workforce. The total number to go will be in the region of 400 or so employees.
The vast majority of the reductions will be by attrition with staff leaving and not being replaced but the rest will be asked to consider a voluntary exit scheme.
Our view is that the courts are already under resourced and that the technology has not advanced enough to replace court staff. In a time when court fees have rocketed, it seems odd that the court staff are to be reduced. Our experience is that the courts can be particularly slow in processing work and it would be appropriate to increase staff levels or redistribute the existing staff, using the additional revenue from increased court fees.