Lammy: UK at frontier of lawtech
Lord Chancellor David Lammy yesterday announced £4.5m in funding for LawtechUK for the next three years alongside a series of initiatives to increase the use of AI in the courts.
LawtechUK, the Ministry of Justice-funded programme, has received £7.5m since its launch in 2019.
In a speech setting out his vision for the future of the courts at a Microsoft event in London, Mr Lammy said he wanted to make sure that the UK “continues to be at the frontier of lawtech”.
Approaching half (44%) of European lawtech start-ups were based in the UK, he noted, and the number of lawtech businesses in the UK had more than trebled from the 110 in 2019.
“We are making sure the conditions are right for lawtech to thrive, because from digital tools that reduce administration, to AI-assisted case analysis to help legal teams identify key issues more quickly, it is enabling lawyers to do more of what they do best: applying their judgement, weighing up the facts and delivering fair outcomes.”
This was why he was committing to £1.5m of funding for LawtechUK for each of the next three years.
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said that it would be putting out to tender the organisation of LawtechUK later in the year. It has been run by CodeBase and Legal Geek since 2023.
Mr Lammy also announced plans to pilot a new AI listing assistant for judges in the criminal courts.
“J-AI will process all the information and data available to the judiciary and help them to make more intuitive listing decisions: to flag cases that may need court action to help them progress, to estimate time needed for each case to help efficient scheduling, and to identify opportunities to list additional cases.”
It is based on technology used in the NHS to speed up processes and cut waiting times.
“If the pilot is successful, we will begin a national rollout as soon as possible, to take us from local listing, done on basic spreadsheets to a national and intelligent listing process,” he said.
Government investment, along with refreshed judicial guidance, would also lead to more video hearings in the Crown and magistrates’ courts.
The MoJ is to expand the use of case progression officers into every Crown Court centre. These are specialist staff focusing solely on progressing cases, with delegated powers to manage tasks that would otherwise sit with judges, such as granting extensions, approving live video links and appointing advocates to cross-examine.
“Just as nurse practitioners free up doctors to focus on complex clinical decisions, they ensure the procedural groundwork is done properly, so judicial time is reserved for what only a judge can do: exercise judgement,” Mr Lammy said.
Alongside changes to the criminal justice system, he said the MoJ was investing over £50m to continue digitalising the county court and more than £20m for a new digital system to meet the needs of the Business and Property Courts.
He highlighted how the MoJ was already using AI, specifically Microsoft Copilot, to transcribe meetings between probation officers and offenders – with more than 25,000 hours of time saved by transcribing over 150,000 meetings.
“We’re testing transcription in the courts and tribunals based on the same technology, and in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, some judges are using it to help formulate notes and write remarks.
“We’re also piloting AI for legal advisors and district judges in the magistrates’ courts to speed up case progression by transcribing material, and summarising their judgments.”
Mr Lammy said there would be £12m in additional funding for the MoJ’s Justice AI Unit to support greater use of the technology on the frontline.
He added: “But we’re going to go even further: strengthening our relationship with Microsoft and others, piloting the solutions of UK-based start-ups, harnessing industry top talent to work more closely with us, and launching a Justice AI academy and fellowship programme so that we can bring in the best graduates and AI engineers.”
The aim was to created “an unprecedented partnership between the public and private sectors, one which can revolutionise a justice system in desperate need of renewal”.
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