Anyone going into any courtroom three years ago would have seen prosecutors with a stack of files on the bench, and similarly the shelves in our offices were piled high with paper case files.
This is changing - every day thousands of cases are being prepared and presented digitally by prosecutors in courts across England and Wales. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been at the forefront of driving this move to digital working in the criminal justice system (CJS), made possible by the dedication of people across our organisation.
The image of prosecutors standing in court with a paper file is fading.
Most police forces are now transferring over 90% of all case files electronically to the CPS. This case information is reviewed digitally and our lawyers can then present cases in court directly from their tablet devices - 75% of cases across the country are presented in this way, and the number is growing. Working on a digital file is like accessing and reading a set of case papers - prosecutors can annotate the electronic documents as well as underline, highlight them and make cross references and comments as they would on the paper file.
I no longer prosecute as part of my day job but since becoming director of the CPS digital programme I have been regularly prosecuting cases from my tablet in magistrates’ and Crown Court. This allows me to keep my hand in digital advocacy and helps to build a really good picture of the digital landscape across the country so that I can understand the challenges and opportunities faced by front-line staff on a daily basis.
Changing to new ways of working is not easy. We have been working hard to make our business processes more efficient by enhancing existing kit, equipping staff with the right tools for the job, and introducing standard practices for key systems and processes.
We are also testing and evaluating key products with staff and CJS partners where appropriate, so we can identify the best ways of doing things before rolling them out.
The way in which the CJS works will continue to change. Instead of delivering and receiving information as we do now, all criminal justice practitioners will access shared case information from a common system. CPS prosecutors will use web connectivity and in-court technology to retrieve information in real-time and present evidence or show CCTV on court screens from their mobile devices. Ultimately digital working means less movement of paper and people around the system, and a simpler, more efficient and more effective CJS which provides a quality service to victims, witnesses and the wider public.
Simon Clements, Crown Prosecution Service
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7 comments
Comment by Haydn Washington posted on
why do courts still use fax machines?
Comment by Sian Jones, Justices' Clerk posted on
In magistrates' courts, which is what I know about, it's mostly solicitors, some are very slow to adopt digital ways of working. However the new legal aid contract should require them to work digitally if they are to receive public funding so that should improve.
Comment by Greg posted on
Sian
Until recently my wife was a criminal defence lawyer. She regularly came home in the evening laughing at the CPS lawyers not being able to access their electronic documents due to their mobile devices having no power and no way to charge them in the court as there are no charging points. Your assertion that things can only get better once the new legal aid contracts come in is naïve. Where is the money to allow firms to adopt digital ways of working while ensuring that the client data held on those devices is secure going to come from. The government is cutting legal aid to the point that most firms will have to close let alone invest in tens of thousands of pounds of IT infrastructure. Will the court pay for the provision of charging points for all that need them rather than giving priority to the CPS. So much for a fair criminal justice system.
Comment by Martin Mather posted on
Why do some judges and magistrates still INSIST on sentencing by taking prisoners to court when they're perfectly capable of being sentenced on Video Link saving millions annually to the Prison Service and Justice system for staffing and transport and with significant time saving & security improvements. And yes, I agree with Haydn, why do courts still use fax machines ? Custody documentation, warrants etc., can all be produced officially and e-mailed / digitally transmitted and prisoners can be securely tagged & scanned throughout transportation, like parcels, to record movements, times and other aspects now written on copious amounts of unnecessary documentation some of which is triplicated. Their property can be treated likewise to reduce administration and handover costs between agencies.
Comment by Simon Clements, author posted on
Thanks for your questions. All magistrates’ courts can now receive digital files from the CPS and progress is being made across the criminal justice system, but everyone working in the system knows they need to continue to reduce the traditional reliance on paper, which led to the use of faxes, and the unnecessary movement of people around the system. The Criminal Justice System Efficiency Programme is working across all the agencies – including the CPS – to do this and deliver the Government’s ambition of digital working in criminal courts in 2016.
Comment by Carole posted on
Fax is a more secure means of comunication because datais encoded. Email is not a secure means of communication unless only sent within a secured system. The minuteanything goes outside that system the vulnerability to being harvested kicks in.
Comment by Maureen James posted on
Hi
I agree with Fax being more secure when dealing with government issues as there is so many viruses going through computers, this is a big risk to take when dealing with very important government data: