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My written ministerial statement of 17 May 2011, Official Report, column 11WS, explained that Her Majesty's Court and Tribunal Service was exploring the potential to modernise the way in which it provided face to face services in the civil and family courts. As that statement made clear such exploration is in the context of the 2008 document ““Framework for the provision of front office services in civil courts”” and subject to local consultations.Local consultations have recently taken place on potential changes to services and we are currently analysing the responses received. No changes have yet been made.Any changes would be subject to regular review and this process would ensure that the impact of other planned policies, such as those in relation to legal aid, were properly considered at the appropriate time.However, we would not expect changes to face to face services to have an effect on caseloads and expect any increase in litigants in person as result of planned legal aid changes to be offset by increases in mediation and reductions in cases coming to court. |