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The Judiciary Administrator's Speaking Notes at the Special Meeting of Finance Committee on 7 April 2025

2025-26 Draft Estimates

        The Judiciary has the constitutional duty to ensure effective and efficient administration of justice. This is integral to upholding the rule of law and judicial independence in Hong Kong. Court business is an essential public service. The work of the Court has extremely serious consequences for those who are affected by the law. While the demand for court services is entirely beyond our control, the Judiciary is constitutionally obliged to handle and dispose of all court cases and proceedings in a fair, reasonable and efficient manner. The Judiciary is also fully aware of the budgetary constraints of the Government. We will continue to make prudent and optimal use of our resources in discharging our constitutional duty as far as practicable.

2.     The draft Estimates of 2025-26 for the Judiciary is $2,806.2 million, representing an increase of $170.2 million (6.5%) over the Revised Estimates of 2024-25. This represents the necessary and essential requirement for the Judiciary to handle the persistently heavy workload, manage court waiting times, and take forward various technology or other reform initiatives in ensuring effective administration of justice. The net additional financial resources required are mainly for –

  1. (a)     filling existing judicial vacancies and engaging temporary judicial manpower to help improve waiting times for proceedings at all levels of court as well as filling non-judicial vacancies for supporting court operation;
  2. (b)     engaging additional and dedicated judicial and non-judicial resources for expediting the processing of cases relating to non-refoulement claims and enhancing support to judges in handling relevant judicial work;
  3. (c)     expanding the use of information technology (IT) and enhancing IT security in the Judiciary; and
  4. (d)     coping with price adjustments to major essential contractual services for court operations, including the enhancement measures for security control guarding and security screening services.

Judicial Manpower

3.     The establishment of judicial posts now stands at 211 while the number of serving Judges and Judicial Officers (JJOs) is 160. In recent years, the Judiciary has been conducting more frequent and regular open recruitment exercises for filling judicial vacancies at different levels of court. The recruitment exercises in 2023 yielded positive results. The latest round of recruitment exercises for Judges of the Court of First Instance of the High Court (CFI) was launched in November 2024, while that for District Judges and Permanent Magistrates will be launched later this year.

4.     The Judiciary would continue to monitor the judicial manpower situation and engage deputy JJOs to meet operational needs where necessary as far as practicable.

Non-Judicial Manpower

5.     For non-judicial manpower, in 2025-26, there will be a net decrease of 11 civil service posts following the lapse of 11 time-limited posts. In addition, ten vacant posts will be deleted upon review of operational needs. Ten posts are proposed to be created for meeting operational needs, including -

  1. (a)     the application of various technology initiatives to meet the emerging needs of the court and registry operation and the relevant legislative work;
  2. (b)     the promotion of greater use of mediation as an alternative dispute resolution; and
  3. (c)     enhancing IT security management and the implementation of new IT security measures.

Overview of the Judiciary’s Work and Operation

Court Proceedings

6.     In 2024-25, the Judiciary continued to cope with the challenge of a persistently heavy workload at various levels of court, which was also augmented by an increasing number of complex civil and criminal cases. The total caseload in 2024 was around 9% higher than the average of the past five years from 2019 to 2023. Through the concerted efforts of JJOs and support staff, the Judiciary demonstrated exceptional resilience in 2024. The overall caseload cleared in 2024 was about 10% higher than the average of the past five years and around 6% more than that in 2019, prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

7.     The Judiciary has been making proactive efforts to expedite court proceedings through multi-pronged measures while steadfastly upholding the principles of justice. These measures include engaging additional permanent and temporary judicial manpower, implementing proactive case management, extending court sitting hours, expanding the use of technology and enhancing court facilities. In overall terms, the target average court waiting times for the majority of civil cases across different levels of court were generally met. There were also considerable improvements in the average waiting times for most criminal proceedings, with the exception of certain types of criminal cases in the CFI owing to the impact of several long trials of complex cases.

8.     The Judiciary continued to accord priority to handling cases related to the 2019 anti-extradition amendment bill incidents (anti-EAB cases) and national security (NS cases). As of 2024, the Judiciary has cleared approximately 2 260 (or around 96%) of over 2 350 anti-EAB cases and over 200 cases (or around 86%) of about 230 NS cases brought at various levels of court. Though the outstanding cases include quite a number of complex cases requiring long trials, with the engagement of additional judicial manpower and the implementation of various measures, we anticipate steady and substantial improvements to court waiting times for proceedings at all levels of court in the coming years.

Leave application for Judicial Review (JR) relating to Non-refoulement claims

9.     In 2024-25, the Judiciary continued to be faced with the continued influx of cases relating to non-refoulement claims into the court. From 2016 to 2024, around 24 000 JR leave applications and related appeals were filed to the court, amongst which some 15 500 cases had been disposed. Around 280 cases which represent 2.9% of the leave applications disposed of were granted leave by the CFI. We generally managed to dispose of on average around 1 560 cases a year over the past four years, which was comparable to the average number of cases received in each year.

10.     The Judiciary has been actively taking various measures, including deploying additional and dedicated manpower resources and streamlining processing procedures, with a view to expediting the disposal of both the backlog and incoming cases as far as possible. In addition to appointing retired judges to serve as Deputy High Court Judges to cope with the heavy workload, the Judiciary launched a special scheme in February 2025. Under this scheme, eligible private practitioners from the legal sector will be appointed as Deputy Judges of the CFI (Non-Refoulement Claims) exclusively for the purpose of handling cases relating to non-refoulement claims during varying appointment periods. We tentatively plan to appoint around ten such special Deputy Judges. Three such appointments have been made so far. Furthermore, the administrative procedures and presentation of the judgment/decision notice have been suitably streamlined so as to expedite the processing of cases by judges. If the scheme works smoothly as planned, we expect to be able to dispose of over 2 000 cases each year which would help reduce the backlog in the coming few years. We will closely monitor the case disposal position and make further short-term judicial appointments having regard to operational needs.

Family Justice Reforms

11.     The Judiciary strives to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the family justice system through various measures, including the making of a new set of unified procedural rules, implementation of the Family Masters System, as well as the continual promotion of the use of family mediation services.

12.     With a clear legal basis established by the Family Procedure Ordinance (Cap. 646), the Family Masters System has been operating smoothly since its implementation in October 2023. We are also working with the relevant Rules Committee to prepare a single unified set of accessible and comprehensive court procedural rules applicable to all family and matrimonial proceedings across the Family Court and the High Court. The exercise is complicated, involving a total of about 60 parts. Further to our early engagement with the welfare sector in late 2024 on issues of interest to them, we will be conducting a public consultation when the whole set of the rules has been prepared.

Use of Mediation in Court Proceedings

13.     To enhance the efficiency of the administration of justice, the Judiciary has been making continual efforts in promoting the wider use of mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism in court proceedings. In 2024, full or partial agreements were reached in over half of the mediated cases referred by the Judiciary. Over 1 500 parties/litigants visited our Mediation Offices, and about 940 information sessions were arranged.

14.     Recent initiatives taken forward by the Judiciary include the introduction of a pilot Family Court-annexed Mediation Scheme in March 2024 involving the engagement of accredited freelance family mediators for suitable cases; as well as the regularization of the Case Settlement Conferences and Mediator-Assisted Case Settlement Conferences in civil cases in the District Court with effect from January 2025. These two schemes have been operating smoothly and effectively, achieving a settlement rate of about 93% and 61% respectively.

Greater Use of Technology

15.     The Judiciary has been making proactive efforts to expand and deepen the use of technology for enhancing the efficiency of court operations. Over the past few years, the Judiciary has launched a number of new and major technology initiatives.

16.     The integrated Court Case Management System (iCMS), the key technology initiative, is being implemented across all levels of court by phases for handling court-related documents and payments through electronic means. It has already been implemented in most civil proceedings in the District Court, summons cases in the Magistrates’ Courts, and bulk claim cases in the Small Claims Tribunal. The iCMS will be extended to the High Court and other levels of court from mid-2025. To induce a greater utilisation of the iCMS, the Judiciary is planning to require all litigants using the conventional paper-based mode to submit an electronic copy (in accordance with additional procedures) in respect of case types in the High Court where iCMS has been made available in 2025, and then mandate the use of this electronic litigation platform on all represented litigants starting from 2026. Meantime, we will continue our efforts in the promotion and publicity of the iCMS with a view to encouraging migration to the electronic mode.

17.     Remote hearing is another major technology initiative. So far, more than 2 100 remote hearings (including video-conferencing or phone hearings) have been conducted for civil proceedings since 2020 with court users reporting positive experiences. Following the enactment of the Courts (Remote Hearing) Ordinance on 28 March 2025, the Judiciary will continue to promote the use of remote hearings in appropriate cases.

18.     Separately, the Judiciary has been actively pursuing the live broadcasting of selected judicial proceedings outside court premises to enhance the transparency and public education about court procedures. Having reviewed the arrangements of the trial runs conducted in 2024, the Judiciary has launched a pilot scheme for the live broadcasting of substantive appellate proceedings in the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) for a period of two years starting from 7 April 2025. Upon completion of the pilot scheme, the Judiciary will review and consider long-term arrangements.

19.     The Judiciary has been developing our own voice-to-text (VTT) system and using it for JJOs’ real-time note-taking during court hearings since December 2023. We will shortly be launching a pilot arrangement of producing transcripts using texts generated by our VTT system for selected court hearings in the CFA Building and High Court Building by including the relevant requirements in the new contracts for the Digital Audio Recording and Transcription Services from November 2025.

20.     In July 2024, the Judiciary issued its first set of guidelines on the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) for JJOs and support staff. They allow JJOs and support staff to make prudent and responsible use of generative AI in their work where appropriate. The guidelines will be subject to further review and revisions to ensure alignment with developments in AI technology and the experience of other courts.

IT Security

21.     The Judiciary attaches great importance to IT security, particularly the storage, management and protection of case data involved in judicial proceedings at all levels of court. We are updating the IT security policy and strengthening the IT security measures in alignment with the relevant highest IT security standards and requirements stipulated by the Government in data management and protection, service stability and sustainable development.

22.     We have also adopted the highest level of IT security design mandated by the Government in planning and implementing the IT infrastructure and facilities of the new District Court Building, ensuring robust protection and compliance.

Court Security

23.     In 2024-25, the Judiciary expanded security screening measures to prevent prohibited items from being brought into all court premises, as part of ongoing efforts to safeguard JJOs, Judiciary staff, and court users. We will continue to be vigilant in ensuring the safety of all court users in court premises during court operating hours.

24.     With a significant number of cases attracting public and media attention, the Judiciary will continue to implement appropriate crowd management and security measures. These include ticketing arrangement to ensure a fair allocation of seats and orderly admission of court users, the use of closed-circuit television recording to prevent unruly behaviour, and deploying necessary security manpower to maintain order and security in court premises.

Conclusion

25.     The Judiciary will make continued efforts in exploring feasible ways and means of enhancing the efficiency of judiciary administration, and providing better quality services to court users and members of the public.

26.     Thank you.