The Attorney General in a talk to Sussex University's 'Issues in Criminal Law' group on 'The Criminal Justice System: meeting the challenge' (9 February 2011) said:
“We must move to a digital CJS as soon as possible” and that “Moving to electronic caseworking and using the electronic case file will significantly reduce CPS's reliance and dependency on paper and support more flexible and mobile ways of working. In addition, we would also like to see electronic case files introduced as early as possible, so that case material can quickly be moved between the defence, police, CPS and the courts, improving efficiency and saving money in all these agencies”.
I understand that the proposals include the CPS receiving case files from the police, passing advance disclosure to defence solicitors, and information to the probation service and courts electronically, and CPS advocates using laptops in court to present their case.
It is also suggested that benches may be issued with tablet computers so they can access such things as records of past offending, crime scene photographs and medical and other reports electronically rather than ‘on paper’ as at present.
I’ve no problem with the idea in principle, in fact now the Lord Chancellor has given it the green light I’ve been thinking of getting a tablet and downloading the Sentencing Guidelines onto it, you can even get an ‘app’ for it! Much easier than carting that huge book about.
However, two things do concern me over this proposal, the first being the Government’s repeated failures to deliver any IT project that works on time and within budget.
The list of Government IT failures is legion and include:
A pay system for the Royal Navy that was a complete failure - it was 217 per cent over budget and abandoned after just one year at a cost of £8.7 million.
The NHS IT programme, four years late and costing £20bn more than the original budget, with 110 breakdowns in four months.
The Magistrates Courts own system, Libra, costing £557m instead of £146m, with the main supplier twice threatening to withdraw unless it was paid more money.
The National Insurance Recording System which crashed soon after its introduction in 1999 with 1500 unresolved system problems.
The Air Traffic Control system was six years late and cost £623m, almost double the original estimate.
The Benefits Payment Card project which was scrapped after 3 years at an estimated cost of £1 billion.
The police computer system, Impact, was delayed for three years and the cost increased from £164m to £367m.
And let’s not forget the last CPS debacle with IT when its much vaunted case tracking computer system was scrapped after spending £9.6 million.
There have been other notable failures including eight Home Office IT projects that are either "severely delayed" or "severely over budget", according to the National Audit Office and problems with systems for the Passport Agency, Immigration, tax self-assessment, the Post Office, National Insurance and the Prison Service.
If that’s not depressing enough then consider the problem of security.
Recently it’s been revealed that supposedly ultra-secure telephone conversations between Scotland Yard and the FBI have been ‘hacked’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16875921
and that more than 1000 Government laptops have, in recent years, been ‘lost’ or stolen.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1580767/More-than-1000-Government-laptops-lost.html
In America, Government departments that have been ‘hacked’ into include the Pentagon, the US Senate, the FBI, the CIA and NASA.
It’s not just the USA either, last year the Canadian Government was targeted by Chinese hackers who gained access to "highly classified federal information".
I’m no IT expert but it does seem to me that if such (supposedly) ultra-secure organisations as the FBI and the CIA can be ‘hacked’ then the amateurs at the CPS should be easy picking for some 18 year old nerd with a laptop and too much time on his hands.
And the prospect of a CPS laptop, containing confidential information on offenders, crimes, evidence etc ‘going missing’, especially pre-trial, just doesn’t bear thinking about.
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