The Ministry of Justice has ordered the deletion of Courtsdesk, the UK's largest court reporting database, within days. The platform helped over 1,500 journalists from 39 media outlets track criminal court cases across magistrates' courts, but HM Courts & Tribunals Service issued a cessation notice citing unauthorized sharing of court information.

Courtsdesk founder Enda Leahy revealed the platform repeatedly found media wasn't being notified about hearings, with two-thirds of courts regularly hearing cases without journalist notification. The service, launched in 2020 with approval from the Lord Chancellor, was found to be far more accurate than HMCTS's own records, which were accurate only 4.2% of the time. Leahy said her team wrote to government agencies 16 times trying to save the service.

An HMCTS spokesperson defended the decision, claiming the press would continue to have full access to court information and that the action was taken to protect sensitive data after Courtsdesk sent information to a third-party AI company. Leahy countered that HMCTS couldn't do what Courtsdesk did, pointing to 1.6 million criminal hearings that proceeded without advance notice to the press. The deletion has sparked concerns about open justice and the ability to report on important cases