APPENDIX 5
Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Lord Chancellor's Department
Q145 What research has the Department done
on the extent to which access to justice might be limited as a
result of the policy on fees?
The Lord Chancellor's Department has not in
the past done any research specifically on the point you raised.
But it is currently taking forward a wide-ranging programme of
work on issues affecting fees. This programme will be looking
to what research we can undertake on customer demand for civil
court cases and the impact fee levels may have on bringing proceedings.
The Department is already committed to protecting
access to justice. To this end there is a subsidy from public
funds towards fees for certain family proceedings. There are also
exemption arrangements for those on means-tested benefits and
powers to remit fees for those not receiving benefit but who would
otherwise suffer undue financial hardship. These subsidies amount
to some £23 million per annum. Additionally, many proceedings
are legally aided with the fees met from legal aid. A further
£40 million per annum is spent from public funds in this
context.
By these means, the most vulnerable in society
are being protected. We hope that research into demand will identify
whether there is any problem at the margins of the current protection.
Resource constraints would militate against the removal of court
fees for all. More importantly, free access may well encourage
weak and unmeritorious claims which could choke the system and
prevent the very access to the courts for those most in need.
Also a large number of court proceedings are brought by commercial
companies for which a decision on cost is a proper economic judgment.
The Lord Chancellor considers an approach which closely targets
those in need is the more cost-effective way of ensuring access
to justice than by wholesale subsidy.
Martin Jones
Courts Bill Manager
Criminal Justice Legislation Division
Q151 Could I just ask if we could have a note
about the computer system in the courts?
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(IT) AND THE
COURTS
Historically, IT provision in the courts has
been developed and deployed to meet specific needs, both locally
and nationally. This means that there has been significant variation
and much of the technology is ageing. To illustrate:
— Each of the Magistrates' Courts Committees
(MCCs) has deployed its own IT. As a result, there has been significant
variation across England and Wales both in terms of infrastructure—PCs,
networks and so on—and case management applications, although
most MCCs use one of three software packages for the latter. Amalgamation
of MCCs meant that there is such variation even within an MCC
— Both the Crown Court and county courts
have had nationally standard case management systems in place
for some time. However, these systems are ageing and cannot offer
the levels of support possible with modern systems
More recently, there have been significant improvements
in IT targeted at addressing specific shortfalls, for example:
— It is now possible to issue, progress
and defend money claims—by volume, the largest set of transactions
handled in the county courts—over the World Wide Web. Over
50% of all money claims are already issued electronically
— Video links for vulnerable &
intimidated witnesses are now installed and in use in all Crown
Court centres
— Jurors and witnesses can take interactive
tours of the Crown Court, again over the World Wide Web
— All of the full time Judiciary who
wish for one are now equipped with laptop PCs offering internet
access, including to a dedicated online legal information service
— Video links between prisons and over
150 magistrates' courts have been implemented, to reduce the cost,
inconvenience and risk of prisoner transfer. Work is under way
to extend this scheme to the largest Crown Court centres
However, there is a widely held recognition
that the broader technology base of the courts is in need of modernising,
if it is to be capable of supporting the reform programme planned
for the courts and wider justice system. This has been recognized
in the SR2002 settlement, which has seen the creation of a £1.1billion+
Criminal Justice System (CJS) IT Joint Fund. The investment objectives
for this fund are set on a cross CJS basis and have been agreed
as:
— A modern infrastructure—PCs
connected across secure networks, linking the whole CJS—for
each of the Criminal Justice Organisations (CJOs). This is the
basic pre-requisite for deploying modern software
— Secure e-mail, so that all involved
professionally in the CJS—be they in the public or private
sector—can exchange information electronically, so replacing
long and error prone paper trails
— Deployment of the CJS Exchange and
connection to it by all CJOs. This serves two purposes. Firstly
to allow IT systems across the CJS to communicate electronically
with each other, so removing the cost and potential error of re-keying
information from one system to another. Secondly, to give users
within the CJS access to all of the electronic information held
on a case across the CJS. This means that administration and decisions
can be based on the fullest, most up to date information available
— Case management related applications,
deployed by CJOs to benefit the CJS as a whole
The pace of the above rollouts will be detailed
in a public report to be published shortly, and six monthly thereafter.
However, in terms of the courts, the key elements are:
— Deployment of a compatible infrastructure
across the Crown Court—including combined and co-located
centres—and MCCs, both of which will support secure e-mail.
Rollout to MCCs is almost complete with only one MCC remaining.
This will be connected in June when a new building is completed.
Work is less advanced in the Crown Court with only the first two
sites being in live operation. Rollout will be phased and complete
by March 2006, although approximately 50% of caseload will be
handled on the new infrastructure by April 2004
— Rollout of a national, standard case
management system across all MCCs. The contract for the software
was signed in January of this year and a procurement is underway
to select the organisation that will roll out the software. Selection
of the supplier is planned for Autumn this year, with rollout
of the application due to complete by the end of 2005. The application
is being developed so that it can link to the CJS Exchange
— Rollout of XHIBIT—eXchanging
Hearing Information By Internet Technology—to all Crown
Court centres. This initiative is focused on using modern technology
to provide "real time" information on court hearings
to all involved, as a means of reforming the way all parties approach
hearings. The first pilot has been in operation since February
2002 and has shown significant potential benefits across the CJS.
The second pilot will begin in the summer of this year and will
use the CJS Exchange to disseminate information across the CJS.
If this pilot confirms the benefits indicated by the first pilot,
XHIBIT will be rolled out following the deployment of the new
infrastructure, on which it relies, and so will implemented in
the same time frame.
The county courts do not fall within the ambit
of the CJS IT Joint Fund and no other specific funds were allocated
for IT related modernisation as part of SR2002. Thus, IT investment
within the county courts has to be considered in the light of
the overall priorities within the Lord Chancellor's Department
and the overall level of Departmental funding. Detailed plans
for IT change are still under development. Several of the broad
priorities are similar to those in the wider court systems, specifically
a modern infrastructure and solutions to exploit that technology
base, such as e-mail, online services and so on. In terms of the
county courts, we are also planning to build on the work to date
to establish the effectiveness of "business centre"
type operations for administrative elements of the work load.
Alongside this, we are looking to enhance IT support for the judiciary.
Looking beyond the SR2002 period, all of the
LCD's major IT contracts come to an end in or around 2007. Work
is already in train to establish the necessary re-procurement,
which will build on the opportunity to re-structure IT contracts
to fully support the LCD's forward work programme and reflect
the structural changes that will have taken place, not least the
Unified Courts Administration.
May 2003
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