Ministry of Justice orders deletion of the UK's largest court reporting database
8 days ago
- #Media Access
- #Court Transparency
- #Justice System
- The Ministry of Justice is shutting down Courtsdesk, a digital archive used by journalists to track criminal court cases.
- Courtsdesk, used by over 1,500 reporters from 39 media outlets, will be deleted after HM Courts & Tribunals Service ordered all records wiped.
- The platform revealed that two-thirds of courts regularly held hearings without notifying journalists, leading to unreported cases.
- Courtsdesk was launched in 2020 with HMCTS approval but faced shutdown in November 2025 due to 'unauthorised sharing' of court data.
- Founder Enda Leahy stated HMCTS records were only 4.2% accurate, with 1.6 million hearings proceeding without press notice.
- HMCTS claims the shutdown protects sensitive data after Courtsdesk shared information with a third-party AI company, but journalists retain access to court listings.