The judiciary of England and Wales has moved from developing guidance on artificial intelligence and small-scale testing to "a more active phase of controlled adoption", according to the 2026 annual report of the Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, which says secure AI tools are being deployed to judicial office holders in addition to Microsoft Copilot.
The report, which covers October 2025 to September 2026, says the transition was overseen by Sir Colin Birss, who was lead judge on AI as Chancellor of the High Court during the reporting period. It says work over the year focused on four areas:
- updating the AI guidance for judicial office holders, with a further revision issued in October 2025
- establishing governance to provide expertise and oversight when AI tools are piloted
- deploying secure tools in addition to Microsoft Copilot, where appropriate
- providing training and communications support for safe and responsible use by judicial office holders
Pilot projects have tested oral transcription, summarisation and the production of age-appropriate language. The report says testing of assistive tools will continue and that tools will be adopted only where there is clear evidence of benefit and appropriate safeguards are in place. It does not name any tool other than Copilot. Judges will retain full responsibility for decisions, reasoning and any output issued in their name.
Carr said in her introduction that AI tools used for transcription and summarisation had the potential to reduce court backlogs and improve timeliness, but that oversight of their use, and of decision-making, would remain with judges.
Under Article 55(3) of the UK GDPR the Information Commissioner is not competent to supervise processing by courts acting in their judicial capacity. The report says that role is performed by the Judicial Data Protection Panel, which supervises the processing of personal data by individuals, courts and tribunals acting judicially, reviews all judicial data incidents and considers complaints. It records that few incidents were reported in the past year and that none had serious consequences.
In the criminal courts, the AI working group of the judge-led Criminal Courts Improvement Group has shared information among criminal justice agencies on current and planned AI use. The report says the group has agreed on the need for strong guardrails, transparency requirements and strict confidentiality and data handling rules, and on the principle that AI should assist human decision-making and not replace it.
The group is also supporting work to develop, test and implement new AI tools. A separate listings working group has worked with HMCTS to explore the use of AI to assist judges, supported by listing officers, in making listing decisions.
The report also records growing use of AI by litigants in person. The King's Bench Division Civil List and the Administrative Court both saw more unrepresented parties using AI to construct their claims, which the report says is improving access to justice while placing significant demands on court staff and judges.
The Court of Appeal Criminal Division is preparing guidance on the use of AI in grounds of appeal, the Civil Justice Council has consulted on AI in the preparation of court documents, and the Technology and Construction Court included AI guidance in its new court guide, published in July 2026. Members of the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee have joined cross-jurisdictional groups working on rules about the use of AI.
