HMCTS

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Dear Ministry of Justice,

1) Are HMCTS a part of MOJ?

2) Why does it say the below on the emails of representatives from the HMCTS?

"I am not authorised to bind the Ministry of Justice contractually, nor to make representations or other statements which may bind the Ministry of Justice in any way via electronic means"

Yours faithfully,

Paul Smith

HMCTS Customer Service (Correspondence),

Dear Mr Smith

Thank you for your e-mail of 25 July sent to the Ministry of Justice's Data Access and Compliance Unit. Your e-mail has been passed to HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) for reply as your questions do not fall under the Freedom of Information Act.

HMCTS is an executive agency, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. You can find more information about HMCTS and what it does online at the address https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati....

The "I am not authorised..." wording you mention is not present at the bottom of e-mails from all representatives within HMCTS. Where this is stated it may be intended to mean that the content of a communication does not necessarily place a contractual binding upon the Ministry of Justice as the department that sponsors HMCTS. Some HMCTS staff may have this wording in their e-mail signatures by default, and it is possible that for this reason it may be stated in e-mail communications where there is no cause for it to be stated. If you have further concerns about a specific use of this wording then you may wish to query it with the Court or Tribunal that has used it.

I hope my reply is helpful.

Neville Collins
Customer Investigations Manager | HM Courts & Tribunals Service Customer Service Directorate
Email: ComplaintsCorres&[email address]

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Dear HMCTS Customer Service (Correspondence),

Thank you for your reply but can you clarify on the information you have provided please?

1) What do you actually mean by sponsored?

2) When you say executive agency, is the agency a private or public one?

3) Because it is an agency, does HMCTS run at a profit?

4) Can HMCTS be held accountable by MOJ

5) You said "Where this is stated it may be intended to mean that the content of a communication does not necessarily place a contractual binding upon the Ministry of Justice" - Why would an employers agent not have no contractual bindings upon their employee when their acting on behalf of them?

6) What Act, Statute or Case Law makes the disclaimer you mention, quoted in question 5, lawful?

Yours sincerely,

Paul Smith

HMCTS Customer Service (Correspondence),

Dear Mr Smith

Thank you for your further e-mail of 3 August.

1) HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) reports to the Ministry of Justice, which sets funding and policy for the agency.

2) HMCTS is a public agency.

3) HMCTS does not not run at a profit, you can find more detailed information about operating income and expenditure in our annual report and accounts at the address https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio....

4) HMCTS reports to the Ministry of Justice as its sponsor department. You can find more information about HMCTS' governance online at the address https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati....

5) There may be situations where this needs to be stated when someone is seeking to enter into an unsolicited contract, for example if a provider of goods or services tries to say that the Ministry of Justice has entered into a contract because a member of HMCTS staff replied to their e-mail. Again, I do not know the circumstances under which this may have been stated to you and it is likely that, unless you were seeking to enter into a contract with HMCTS or Ministry of Justice, it was stated unnecessarily and I am sorry for any confusion it may have caused if this is the case.

6) I do not know what specific law would apply when this disclaimer is used, I must make clear I am not legally qualified so could not offer the level of legal analysis on this that a solicitor may be able. I can only suggest that if you remain concerned about the use of this and how it affects you then you may want to seek independent legal advice.

I hope this information is helpful.

Yours sincerely

Neville Collins
Customer Investigations Manager | HM Courts & Tribunals Service Customer Service Directorate
Email: ComplaintsCorres&[email address]

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Dear Neville

Thank you for your reply.

You have answered all my questions except number one.

I asked what do you actually mean by sponsor? In the dictionary there is 2 definitions.

1) One who assumes responsibility for another person or a group during a period of instruction, apprenticeship, or probation.
or
2) One that finances a project, event, or organization directed by another person or group, such as a business enterprise that pays for radio or television programming in return for advertising time.

If the answer is number 2, please could you tell me where HMCTS gets its powers from to act as a public body?

Yours sincerely,

Paul Smith

HMCTS Customer Service (Correspondence),

Dear Mr Smith

Thank you for your further e-mail.

The relationship I set in my previous e-mail describes the Ministry of Justice's sponsorship of HMCTS, where the Ministry of Justice sets funding and policy for HMCTS. This "sponsor" relationship exists across many other government departments and their agencies, for example the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is sponsored by the Department for Transport. An explanation of HMCTS' relationship to the Ministry of Justice is also given on page 9 of our Framework Document, which you can view online at the address https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio....

HMCTS gets its powers to act as a public body from primary and secondary legislation which can be viewed via the website http://www.legislation.gov.uk/. Due to the number of different types of cases handled by the courts and tribunals that HMCTS administers, there is no single piece of legislation that gives HMCTS and the courts and tribunals it administers all of their powers. For example, a Crown Court's powers to deal with a criminal trial may depend on a number of acts, including the Courts Act 1971 that established the Crown Court and various subsequent Acts that may have amended the way the Crown Court works and may have set out specific criminal offences. Many of HMCTS' powers for administrating court and tribunal proceedings were transferred from the Tribunals Service and HM Courts Service when these two agencies merged to form HMCTS in 2011.

I must make clear that HMCTS' administrative staff cannot provide detailed legislative analysis, we are not resourced and, as I mentioned in my previous e-mail, not necessarily qualified to do so. If you want to find out more about the relevant legislation that provides HMCTS' powers then you may wish to conduct your own research using the legislation.gov.uk website, or you may wish to seek independent advice.

Again, I hope this information is helpful.

Yours sincerely

Neville Collins
Customer Investigations Manager | HM Courts & Tribunals Service Customer Service Directorate
Email: ComplaintsCorres&[email address]

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Thank you for your reply Neville

Yours sincerely,

Paul Smith