New plan aims to transform courts system with AI-powered tools, reduce backlogs and boost efficiency
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ has unveiled an ambitious new strategy to roll-out AI across courts, prisons, and probation services in England and Wales, aiming to deliver faster, fairer and more efficient justice.
The AI action plan for Justice, released this week and backed by the Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor, outlines how the department plans to embed AI tools across the justice system over the next three years. It marks the first plan of its kind in the UK and sets out over 60 initiatives including AI-powered chatbots, transcription tools and predictive risk models.
The plan is built around three priorities: strengthening the system’s technical foundations, embedding AI into public-facing and operational services and investing in staff skills and partnerships. A newly appointed Chief AI Officer will lead a dedicated Justice AI Unit tasked with coordinating AI projects and ensuring public trust through robust ethical oversight. The MoJ also announced a Justice AI Fellowship to attract top AI talent from other industries and universities into government.
According to the MoJ, AI technologies are already being used in pilot schemes to help staff transcribe probation meetings, summarise court bundles and automate paperwork.
The department says it will provide secure AI assistants to all 95,000 staff by the end of 2025. These tools will support everyday tasks such as drafting, searching, and scheduling, with initial pilots reportedly saving staff 30 minutes per day on average.
The MoJ also pointed to examples from the private sector, including the use of AI in a high-profile criminal trial at the Old Bailey. Defence lawyers used AI software by UK firm Luminance to analyse 10,000 documents, reportedly saving £50,000 in costs and four weeks in review time.
Meanwhile, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has approved the world’s first AI-driven law firm, Garfield AI, which helps businesses recover small debts via automated pre-action processes. The MoJ suggests such innovations could reduce pressure on the courts and improve access to justice.
While the plan highlights AI’s potential to reduce backlogs and improve decision-making, it also stresses the need for responsible adoption. “AI should support, not substitute, human judgment,” the report states, pledging to protect judicial independence and avoid algorithmic bias. AI tools that affect individual rights, such as risk assessments in custody, will face rigorous testing and oversight, with all use cases published for public scrutiny.
The MoJ is also working closely with regulators including the SRA and Bar Standards Board to ensure the legal sector’s approach to AI remains proportionate and evidence-based.
Critics, however, warn that infrastructure gaps and funding uncertainty could hinder progress. The MoJ has secured initial funding for its AI plan but notes that “long-term, sustained funding” is needed to scale successful pilots.
The department is also exploring new procurement models to help smaller UK AI firms secure government contracts. Initiatives such as ‘Reverse Pitch’ events allow startups to co-design solutions with MoJ staff, with several SMEs already developing tools for offender education and digital learning.
Year one of the rollout (from April 2025) will focus on “early wins”, such as scaling AI assistants, testing AI-powered search and transcription tools, and piloting citizen-facing chatbots to help the public navigate legal services. More advanced applications, like predictive models for sentencing and risk, will be tested later, subject to judicial and ethical review.
