HM Courts and Tribunals Service

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is the executive agency of the Ministry of Justice that administers the courts of England and Wales, including the Family Court, and the reserved tribunals across the United Kingdom. HM Courts and Tribunals Service describes itself as “responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts in England and Wales, as well as the reserved unified tribunals across the United Kingdom”.[1] HM Courts and Tribunals Service was created on 1 April 2011 by bringing together HM Courts Service and the Tribunals Service “into one integrated agency”, and operates “as a partnership between the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals” under a published Framework Document.[2][3]

HMCTS employs around 18,500 staff and operates from more than 350 venues.[1][4] In family cases it issues applications, lists hearings, serves documents, collects fees, administers the Help with Fees scheme and runs the online services through which divorce, child arrangements and probate applications are made; it does not decide cases, which is the function of the independent judiciary.[4][5][6][7] HM Courts and Tribunals Service’s reform programme, which ran from 2016 to March 2025, introduced 14 digital services and moved most divorce applications online.[8][4]

Written by Jess Knauf, Director of Client Strategy at Mediate UK and Associate Member of Resolution. Reviewed by Belinda Atkins, Managing Director of Mediate UK. Last reviewed 6 September 2026; last updated 6 September 2026; next scheduled review March 2027.

Definition and purpose

An executive agency is an administrative unit of a government department with its own chief executive, budget and published objectives. HMCTS is “an executive agency, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice”.[9] Its stated aim is “to run an efficient and effective courts and tribunals system which enables the rule of law to be upheld and provides access to justice for all”.[3] The agency’s own account of its responsibilities is to provide the supporting administration for a fair, efficient and effective courts and tribunals system, to support an independent judiciary, to drive improvements in administration and to work with other justice organisations.[1]

The distinction between administration and adjudication is fundamental. Judges and magistrates decide cases and are independent of government; HMCTS provides the buildings, staff, systems and processes that allow them to do so. In the Family Court this means that a court officer issues a C100 or a divorce application and a legal adviser or judge then makes the decisions in it.[10][4]

HMCTS has no founding statute of its own. It exists to discharge the Lord Chancellor’s duty under section 1 of the Courts Act 2003 “to ensure that there is an efficient and effective system to support the carrying on of the business of” the Senior Courts, the Court of Protection, the county court, the family court and the magistrates’ courts, and to “ensure that appropriate services are provided for those courts”.[11] It operates under a Framework Document which “sets out the basis of an operating partnership between the Lord Chancellor (Secretary of State for Justice), the Lady Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals”.[3]

The partnership model reflects the constitutional position that the courts belong neither to the executive nor to the judiciary alone. The HMCTS Board is chaired by an independent non-executive chair, Sir Richard Broadbent during 2024-25, and includes three judicial representatives alongside the Chief Executive and executive directors.[4] The Chief Executive is Megan Lee-Devlin; her predecessor Nick Goodwin held the post through 2024-25.[9][4]

The Family Court itself was created by section 17(3) of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which inserted Part 4A into the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984; HMCTS is the body that gives that court its physical and administrative existence, and section 31B of the 1984 Act, which allows the court to sit “at any place in England and Wales”, is given effect through the HMCTS estate.[12][10]

Structure, staff and estate

HMCTS states that it employs “around 18,500 staff and operate[s] from locations in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland”; its 2024-25 annual report puts the figure at around 16,200 full-time equivalents working “from over 350 venues”.[1][4] Total operating expenditure in 2024-25 was £2.744 billion, with net expenditure of £1.9 billion after income of around £0.9 billion, largely from fees.[4]

The organisation is divided into jurisdictional and regional operations, digital and technology, finance, human resources and strategy directorates.[9] Alongside the court buildings, much family work is now processed in five national Courts and Tribunals Service Centres that handle digital divorce, probate and other online cases; the divorce service, for example, is addressed to “HMCTS Divorce and Dissolution service” at a postal box in Harlow rather than to a local court.[4][6] A separate Trust Statement accounts for the fines, confiscation orders and other impositions HMCTS collects on behalf of the state, which totalled £992.5 million in 2024-25.[3]

Administration of the Family Court

In the Family Court, HMCTS is responsible for receiving and issuing applications, checking that the correct fee has been paid or Help with Fees granted, placing cases before a gatekeeping legal adviser or judge for allocation, serving documents where the court is to serve them, listing hearings and providing courtrooms, ushers, legal advisers for lay justices and clerks, producing sealed orders, and keeping the records of proceedings required by section 31M of the 1984 Act.[10][4][5] It also supplies the data from which the Ministry of Justice compiles Family Court Statistics Quarterly.[13]

HMCTS staff include justices’ legal advisers, who advise lay justices on law and procedure under section 31O of the 1984 Act and exercise delegated case management powers, and court officers who deal with the public at counters and by telephone.[10] The agency sits on the Family Justice Board through its chief executive and works with Cafcass, local authorities and the judiciary on performance and reform, including the roll-out of Child Focused Courts announced in March 2026.[14][15] The President’s 2021 transparency review recommended that HMCTS host an anonymisation unit to help judges publish more judgments.[16]

Members of the public locate their court through the Find a court or tribunal service, which gives each venue’s address, opening times, contact details, “the areas of law it covers” and “disabled access to the building”.[17]

Online services

Most family applications can now be started online. The services below are operated by HMCTS on GOV.UK.

HMCTS online services relevant to family cases, September 2026
ServiceWhat it doesNotes
Apply for a divorce or dissolutionSole or joint application, payment of the £628 fee or Help with Fees reference, conditional and final order applicationsPaper Form D8 remains available; “94% now choose digital” according to HMCTS[6][4]
Apply to court about child arrangements (online C100)Digital C100, C1A and C8 for section 8 applicationsOpened to the public in February 2020 after a pilot of more than 8,000 applications[7]
Apply for probateGrant of probate or letters of administrationAvailable online or on paper forms PA1P and PA1A; most grants issued within 12 weeks of application[18]
Help with FeesApplication for full or partial fee remission, producing a reference number to quote on the main applicationPaper form EX160 remains available[5]
Find a court or tribunalLocates the correct venue and its contact details[17]
Digital supportFree help, face to face or remote, for people who cannot use online servicesProvided through community and advice centres[19]

Public law children cases and financial remedy applications are handled through separate digital services used mainly by local authorities and legal professionals.[4] HMCTS reports user satisfaction of “80% for online divorce” and over 93 per cent for online probate.[20] For people who cannot use online services, a free digital support service is available “for users across England, Wales and Scotland”, delivered face to face at community and advice centres or remotely.[19]

Fees and Help with Fees

HMCTS collects the court fees set by the Lord Chancellor under section 92 of the Courts Act 2003 in the Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008, and publishes them in leaflet EX50.[21][22] As at 13 July 2026 the principal family fees are £628 for a divorce, dissolution or nullity application, £270 for a Children Act application, £321 for a contested financial order and £62 for a financial order by consent; there is no fee for a non-molestation or occupation order.[22] The Help with Fees scheme, administered by HMCTS, remits fees in full or in part for people with limited savings and income or on qualifying benefits.[5] Fee income forms most of the roughly £0.9 billion of income that offsets HMCTS spending.[4] The full tables, thresholds and history are on family court fees.

The reform programme

“Between 2016 and March 2025, HMCTS undertook a reform programme which digitised multiple services.” The programme “launched 14 new digital services across all jurisdictions” and by its close had “processed over 4.1 million digitally submitted cases since April 2019”.[8] The 2024-25 annual report puts the investment at £1.23 billion and the digital case total at over 4.5 million.[4] In the family jurisdiction the programme delivered digital divorce, private law (the online C100), public law, financial remedy and probate services, with adoption limited to digital submission of the application, together with the service centres that process them; HMCTS reports over 500,000 divorce applications made online since 2019.[4][7]

The programme was scrutinised by the National Audit Office, whose February 2023 report found that the £1.3 billion programme had been extended from a planned end in 2020 to December 2023 and concluded that “HMCTS’s priority has been on delivering its reforms at pace rather than embedding sustainable change”.[23] HMCTS accepted that “some of them are things that we didn’t get right, such as introducing too much change too quickly”.[24] The programme formally closed in March 2025.[8]

Statistics

HMCTS in figures
MeasureFigureSource and period
StaffAround 18,500 (about 16,200 FTE)HMCTS annual report 2024-25[4]
VenuesOver 350HMCTS annual report 2024-25[4]
Operating expenditure£2.744 billion2024-25[4]
Net expenditure after income£1.9 billion2024-25[4]
Reform programme investment£1.23 billion2016 to March 2025[4]
Digital cases submittedOver 4.5 millionApril 2019 to March 2025[4]
Divorce applications made digitally94 per cent2024-25[4]
Family cases received (including divorce and probate)Over 560,0002024-25[4]
Family court cases started71,259January to March 2026[13]
Impositions collected (fines, confiscation, surcharge)£992.5 million2024-25 Trust Statement[3]

History

Development of HMCTS
DateDevelopment
2003The Courts Act 2003 placed the Lord Chancellor under a general duty to support the business of the courts[11]
1 April 2011HM Courts and Tribunals Service created as an executive agency by merging HM Courts Service and the Tribunals Service[2]
22 April 2014The single Family Court opened, administered by HMCTS[12]
2016The reform programme began[8]
8 May 2018Online divorce application rolled out nationally, HMCTS reporting that rejection rates fell from around 40 per cent on paper to below 1 per cent online; the online C100 followed in February 2020[25][7]
23 February 2023National Audit Office report on progress of the reform programme[23]
March 2025Reform programme closed after delivering 14 digital services[8]

Criticism and debate

Criticism of HMCTS in the family jurisdiction centres on delay and on the effects of court closures and centralisation. The National Audit Office found that the reform programme had repeatedly slipped and had prioritised pace over embedding change.[23] Court users and practitioners have pointed to the 26-week limit for care cases being met in only 36 per cent of cases disposed in January to March 2026 and to average private law timescales of 35 weeks, although both figures improved on the previous year.[13] The move of divorce and probate processing to national service centres has been welcomed for speed and criticised for making it harder to speak to someone with knowledge of an individual case; HMCTS points to satisfaction ratings for its online services and to the digital support service for those who cannot use them.[20][19]

See also

References

  1. About us: HM Courts and Tribunals Service. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  2. HM Courts and Tribunals Service Annual Report and Accounts 2012-13, HC 239. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. 2013. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  3. HM Courts and Tribunals Service Trust Statement 2024-25. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. July 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  4. HM Courts and Tribunals Service Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. July 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  5. Get help paying court and tribunal fees. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  6. Get a divorce: how to apply. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  7. Digital form quicker and easier for separated parents applying to see children. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. 19 February 2020. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  8. The HMCTS reform programme. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. updated 24 March 2025. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  9. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  10. Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984, Part 4A: The family court. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  11. Courts Act 2003, section 1: The general duty. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  12. Crime and Courts Act 2013, section 17: Civil and family proceedings in England and Wales. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  13. Family Court Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2026. Ministry of Justice. 25 June 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  14. Family Justice Board. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  15. Children to get swifter justice as new family court approach expands nationally. Ministry of Justice. 17 March 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  16. Confidence and Confidentiality: Transparency in the Family Courts. Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division. 28 October 2021. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  17. Find a court or tribunal. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  18. Applying for probate: apply for probate. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  19. HMCTS services: digital support. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. updated 24 March 2025. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  20. Modernising courts and tribunals: benefits of digital services. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. updated 24 March 2025. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  21. The Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008, SI 2008/1054. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  22. Family court fees (EX50). HM Courts and Tribunals Service. updated 13 July 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  23. Progress on the courts and tribunals reform programme. National Audit Office. 23 February 2023. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  24. HMCTS response to National Audit Office report on Reform. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. 23 February 2023. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  25. Online divorce application: national rollout will be just the beginning. Inside HMCTS blog. 8 May 2018. Accessed 5 September 2026.

This article is part of Family Court Wiki, published by Family Legal Ltd. It is general information about the law of England and Wales, not legal advice. Last reviewed 6 September 2026. About this site and editorial policy · Report an error.