Judicial Commission of NSW Annual Report 2017-18

Judicial Commission of NSW — Annual Report 2017–18 8 Overview of the Commission Results in brief and strategic direction Our programs this year continued to promote the highest standards of judicial behaviour, performance and decision making. Below are our results in brief, key challenges faced this year and our strategic direction for 2018–19. Continuing judicial education Key results Key challenge Strategic direction Judicial officers rated their satisfaction with the education program at 93% (last year 91%). See p 25 for more information. Judicial skills, knowledge and attitudes were enhanced with 38 education events offered (last year 44). See pp 21 – 32 for more information. Unprecedented number of reforms to the criminal justice system which stretched our already limited resources. See pp 34, 37 for more information. Developing web-based education as an alternative to in-person programs in order to assist busy judicial officers. See p 22 for more information. Providing legal information Key results Key challenge Strategic direction 31 publications to inform judicial officers about changes to the law, community values, court practice and procedure (last year 31). See p 38 for more information. Judicial officers had access to current law on the Judicial Information Research System (JIRS) to assist in their day-to- day decision making. JIRS had 1.638 million page hits (1.5% growth). See p 40 for more information. Re-prioritising our research projects to accommodate the NSW Government’s significant justice reform program. See p 37 for more information. Updating our information to advise judicial officers about sentencing law reforms (expected to commence in September 2018); reforms to child sexual assault laws following the Child Abuse Royal Commission recommendations; and reforms to forensic mental health law. See p 34 for more information. Our finances Financial result Income Expenses Our financial result was a deficit of $248,000. The deficit, due to depreciation of $252,000 as a non-cash item, was not funded from recurrent allocations. See p 91 for more information. Income of $6.609 million was derived from $5.568 million in government funding and $1.041 million in other revenue. See p 91 for more information. Our expenses were $6.857 million. See p 91 for more information. We received an unmodified report for our financial statements from the Auditor-General of NSW. See p 91 for a summary of our finances and pp 92 –116 for our full financial report. $