England and Wales judiciary centralizes approval for judicial AI tools
On October 9, the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary published a position statement requiring judicial AI uses to pass through a central steering group chaired by the Lead AI Judge and limiting judicial work to approved tools with UK data residency, enterprise protection and disabled web access.
Inside Practice · OCTOBER 14, 2026 · 1 MIN READ
On October 9, the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary published a position statement requiring judicial AI uses to pass through a central steering group chaired by the Lead AI Judge and limiting judicial work to approved tools with UK data residency, enterprise protection and disabled web access. For law firms, the statement creates a concrete benchmark for presenting AI-assisted material to courts: human verification, confidentiality controls and an auditable approval route matter as much as model capability. Legal departments should expect similar controls to appear in public-sector procurement and dispute protocols, particularly for summarization, redaction, chronologies and document analysis. The operational implication is to map which tools, data locations and review steps can withstand scrutiny if work product enters a judicial process.