IntroductionPractice Guidance:Transparency in the Court of Protection: publication of judgments (January 2014), Sir James MunbyPrivate hearingsPublicity:Transparency PilotPublicity:Case Management Pilot
13.1The Court of Protection’s approach to public and media access has changed dramatically in the two years since the first edition of this book. On 16 January 2014 Sir James Munby P had issued guidance entitled
Transparency in the Court of Protection: publication of judgments.
1Available at: www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Guidance/transparency-in-the-cop.pdf. The President considered that too few judgments in the Court of Protection were made available to the public and that greater transparency was needed to build both understanding of and confidence in the court system. He made it clear that this was part of an incremental approach and that the guidance would be followed by further guidance, then practice directions and changes to the Rules, with a view to harmonising practice in the Court of Protection with that in the Family Court.
2Transparency in the Court of Protection [2014] EWCOP B2 paras 5, 6.13.2Limited changes were made in July 2015 through amendments to the COPR r91 and to Practice Direction 13A. More fundamental change was implemented with the (initially) six-month Transparency Pilot in January 2016. As explained below at para 13.14 this reversed the default position that the majority of hearings should be in private and instead applies a presumption that hearings will take place in public, with reporting restrictions to protect the identity of P and P’s family, unless there is ‘good reason’ to order otherwise. The Transparency Pilot was extended in July 2016 to last until 31 August 2017.
13.4In addition to the Transparency Pilot, the provisions governing hearings and publicity have been re-numbered in cases falling within the Case Management Pilot. In cases to which the Pilot applies, the relevant rules are no longer to be found in Part 13 (COPR rr90–93), but rather in Pilot Part 4, COPR Pr4. Practice Direction 13A is now PD Pilot 4A in cases to which the Pilot applies. For the most part, this chapter refers to the numbering that relates to the Case Management Pilot, but will also refer to the numbering where it is considered that this may help the reader. This applies in particular to cases concerning serious medical treatment, which fall outside both the Transparency Pilot and may (as noted in para 4.101 above) fall outside the Case Management Pilot as well.
13.5In this chapter, we:
•set out the relevant provisions of in the Administration of Justice Act 1960;
•set out the rules and explain the modifications as a result of the rule changes in 2015;
•explain the implications of the Transparency Pilot;
•consider the position in cases which fall outside the pilot (ie serious medical treatment cases and committal proceedings); and
•consider the issues that may arise in relation to anonymisation.