Conservative MP Dr Kieran Mullan has launched a scathing attack on Labour over its “disingenuous” order to delete a massive archive of UK court records, warning it marks a “catastrophic blow” to open justice.
The controversy centers on Courtsdesk, a digital database used by over 1,500 journalists to track criminal cases.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has ordered the platform to wipe its entire archive following an alleged data breach a move Dr Mullan claims is a “stonewall” tactic to hide the “embarrassing” failure of the Government’s own data accuracy.
Speaking on The People’s Channel, GB News host Charlie Peters said: “The Government say that they are committed to open justice. As part of this ongoing debate about this court service and the transcripts access.
“What do you make specifically of the argument made by the Minister, Sarah Salmon, that the problem here is about private information being revealed?
“Is it not the case that private information is revealed all the time in courts, and it’s up to journalists and others attending to make sure they follow those anonymity orders and reporting restrictions?”
Dr Mullan said: “It’s not really the information that’s the problem. It’s just about making sure people follow the rules.
“The people who run this company have put together an excellent blog where they lay out, piece by piece, the criticisms the Minister made.
Conservative MP Dr Kieran Mullan slammed labour for the decision
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GB NEWS
“They point out that dates of birth and addresses of some individuals, victims and criminals, are of course sensitive.
“But right now, that information has been emailed to all sorts of people via a distribution list, including third-party organisations and charities.
“Some addresses are Gmail or Hotmail accounts. That’s what makes this seem slightly disingenuous.
“The Government hasn’t raised this issue in multiple years, even though it’s been happening for a long time.
An HMCTS spokesman said that the Government is committed to open justice
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“This is one of the reasons the tool was introduced to improve and regulate how information is shared.
“CourtsDesk has a full process for accrediting journalists so they can log into the portal and confirm they’re the right people to access the data.
“That’s far more robust than the email system, and yet the government is using the email issue as the reason to stop data sharing. It doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny.
“But as I said, whatever may or may not have happened between Courts Desk and the Government, that isn’t a reason to delete a unique archive of court data accumulated over recent years.”
An HMCTS spokesman said: “The Government is committed to open justice and we are ensuring that journalists continue to have full access to information from the courts to ensure accurate reporting.
“We are also working on providing a new licensing arrangement which will allow third parties to apply to use our data. We will provide more information on this in the coming weeks.
“We take the protection of people’s privacy extremely seriously and will always take appropriate action to safeguard the processing of personal data.”
