The Civil Procedure Rule Committee has published the minutes of its most recent meeting, providing an update on its continuing work.

The minutes reveal that the work on access to court documents has been temporarily paused in order to allow the new Transparency and Open Justice Board (which we commented upon here) to conduct its first phase of work. On that subject, the Board, chaired by Mr Justice Nicklin, has issued a call for interest for those who might wish to join the Stakeholder Committee, which will include “media and all those with an interest in open justice”.

The minutes also confirm that further work will be undertaken to update CPR 25, including finalising model orders, after which the recast and reformed Part 25 will be submitted for final approval and incorporated into an Update Cycle. A new Practice Direction will also be drafted to replace the existing PD51O E-Working Pilot Scheme. In the meantime, the pilot will be extended in its current form to 1 November 2025 “to allow time for the replacement provisions to be introduced”.

There is also mention of the work that flowed from the Civil Justice Council’s Report on Costs, published in May 2023. In response to the report’s recommendations for a more flexible approach to costs budgeting, a new draft Practice Direction has been prepared for five categories of case, together with a new precedent costs form. The Committee agreed that the categories would be separated out and a collection of draft Practice Directions would be prepared in due course.

Finally, it was resolved that CPR Part 52 would be amended to include a new rule 52.3B, providing that that the deadline for seeking permission from the Court of Appeal to appeal to the Supreme Court would be 28 days after the date of the decision of the Court of Appeal which the appellant wishes to appeal. The amendment is expected to come into effect on 1 October 2024.