Scheduling and listing: using technology to co-ordinate resources more effectively
Source: gov.uk (2025-03-24)

While judges decide when to schedule and list court and tribunal hearings, HMCTS puts the administrative and logistical arrangements in place to facilitate them.

Under judicial direction, careful consideration is given to parties’ needs, judicial availability and wider resources such as the availability of staff, buildings and technology.

Before the introduction of our online Scheduling and Listing tool, courts were struggling with outdated methods of planning and organising court time - they often used paper diaries, disconnected spreadsheets and basic calendars. This meant:

staff spent excessive time on administrative tasks rather than supporting complex cases and working with judges

courtroom space was under utilised

no reliable data on how resources such as courtrooms, staff and judicial time were being used

very little flexibility for local courts to manage their own schedules to suit their needs

There was a clear opportunity and need to offer local courts the flexibility to manage their own courtroom space and diaries, to understand future needs and effectively plan accordingly, save time and reduce the financial cost to the taxpayer through better courtroom utilisation.

Benefits of the digital service

Our digital Scheduling and Listing tool has delivered substantial improvements for court users, staff and the justice system, resulting in:

reduced administrative burden through automated listing of procedural hearings

enhanced visibility of room availability across multiple court buildings

improved planning capability with comprehensive data insights

better experience for listing officers with more reliable hearing information

improved access to justice for court users due to better use of valuable judicial time and courtroom space

stronger data security and business resilience with a standardised approach across jurisdictions and no reliance on paper-based system

long-term planning capabilities beyond 6 months

simplified process for legal professionals to manage their court commitments

reduced risk of errors in scheduling

Our digital transformation

Since 2016, we’ve implemented two major digital solutions that are transforming how we organise the use of courtrooms and and resources.

In Civil and Family Courts and Tribunals we’ve designed and implemented ListAssist, a digital platform for listing hearings in England and Wales.

In criminal courts, instead of introducing a completely new system for scheduling and listing, we are adding a number of functions to Common Platform. This is already used to list most criminal hearings through its basic scheduling and listing capabilities, so we can deliver improvements quicker and more smoothly.

At every step, extensive user research and feedback from the people testing and using the service has been essential to overcome challenges and get new changes right before we introduced them in full.

ListAssist (Civil and Family Courts and Tribunals)

ListAssist is now live in all Civil and Family Courts and Tribunals in England and Wales. It has enabled listing officers to:

provide automatic listing for routine hearings

view resource availability across multiple locations

deliver actionable insights on hearing durations and patterns

integrate with the Court and Tribunal Hearings Service for improved public access

Common Platform enhancements (Criminal Courts)

Following successful testing by early adopters in Mold, Kent, Essex and Redditch in Autumn 2024, access to the first version of the scheduling tool went live in early 2025 for all Magistrates’ Courts in Wales and the South East, with positive results.

Users have told us the tool is easy to use and useful and we have incorporated enhancements suggested by our early adopters into the next phase of the tool’s development. We’re now rolling out across all magistrates’ courts across all regions following feedback from early adopters.

By creating a digital platform under the Reform Programme we’ve already:

improved accuracy of booked sessions and removed duplicate recordings

given users the ability to view, edit and create new sessions, allowing them to make real time changes to their schedule

extended scheduling beyond 6-month limitation

Future enhancements will improve the scheduling and listing process by allowing staff to:

see how much space is available in one glance, saving time in cross-referencing with different systems – delivering smoother justice for users

view a two-week calendar, rather than one day allowing for better future planning

have bulk editing capabilities for multiple hearings, ensuring optimum use of courtroom space, helping legal professionals manage their time effectively and increasing efficiency of cases

reduce waiting times due to greater visibility of hearing room and judge availability

Better use of resources

The scheduling and listing tools will increase the quality of service offered to the public and legal professionals. It will support better use of hearing spaces; reduce administrative tasks so that skilled listing officers an focus on the more complex areas of hearing management; and provide greater confidence that hearings will proceed when scheduled.

The ability to allow for long-term vision and planning rather than just being able to view and schedule hearings on that day is making a huge difference to court users, helping legal professionals manage their time more effectively and ensuring optimum use of courtroom space.

Better information sharing

In turn, increased efficiency of the scheduling and listing of cases will improve the experience of our users’ visiting courts and tribunals, reducing the opportunity for errors to be made and, cutting down the time it takes listing officersto complete administrative tasks.

By having a consistent approach to how we list hearings on one universal platform, we will improve the accuracy of our data. Data providing accurate hearing durations and start times will increase our knowledge and reduce delays as we understand better how resources are used, in turn improving business resilience.

Working together

We work closely with:

local listing officers and courts on rollout and delivery – we have carried out extensive user research in our Crown and magistrates’ courts and implemented pilots before full rollout.

Courts and Tribunals Service Centres to offer best support and advice for stakeholders

Magistrates, legal advisers and judiciary as a vital partner at all levels to deliver a more streamlined system

Getting support

We’ve implemented a comprehensive support strategy along the way, including:

early adopter programme in key locations

phased rollout allowing for feedback and system improvements

dedicated training for staff transitioning from legacy systems

ongoing support through local champions and digital support teams

regular user feedback sessions to identify and address challenges

Feedback and insights

Users across the justice system feedback how the service has improved ways of working:

The transition has been surprisingly straightforward, with staff adapting quickly to the new process. The Programme team has been responsive to our feedback and concerns.

The ability to view and create sessions has been invaluable… the system is intuitive and user-friendly.

ListAssist was introduced to us quite slowly, which was helpful to let us adapt. So far, it’s worked well. The search is quick, and scheduling works well for us. Working with the project however has been good. In particular, it’s been really good to work with Barry Sutton, the Deputy Service Manager. He’s from a listing background so he understands the way we work and what we need.

Future plans

We’re continuing to improve the service for the people who need to use it. Our plans include:

further integration of ListAssist with case management systems

enhanced data analytics capabilities for better resource planning

potential expansion of tools to Crown Court scheduling

continuous improvement based on user feedback

development of additional automated features

enhanced reporting capabilities for better resource management

Stay updated

To keep informed about the latest developments visit:

Court and Tribunal Hearing Lists (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmcts-hearing-lists)

HMCTS Reform Programme Updates (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-hmcts-reform-programme)