The report does not recommend any major changes to the present system of court sittings and vacations. It refers further consideration of the matter to the incoming Courts Service.
While the different courts (District, Circuit and High) have different terms in which they sit, the Circuit and High courts are technically on "vacation" during August and September. There is also a two-week break around Whit. The District courts sit most of the year except in August, when they sit only for emergency cases, and the Christmas and Easter holidays.
The long summer vacation in the higher courts has been the subject of some criticism, but the working group points out that there are sittings throughout the summer vacation for urgent cases, and that there has been a practice in recent years to have additional sittings in September to clear backlogs.
"The current system is favoured by key participants," according to the report, which also points out that the level of court staffing is consistent with current practice, and that the time when the courts are not sitting is used to catch up with paperwork. "To effect change in the organisational system of court terms would require the co-operation of many groups, including the judiciary, the Bar Council, the Law Society and court staff," it says.
However, it recommends that, following consultations, court offices might be open for normal hours during court recesses, that the Courts Service would consider whether July and August might be more appropriate for a recess than August and September, and that the Whit recess be reviewed.