improving the crime service through technology
TRANSCRIPT
Justice Matters
Improving the Crime Service through technologyAnnual Public User Event 2021
Jayne Gardner
Justice Matters
Why are we reforming the crime service?
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The criminal justice system is designed around experts rather than the citizens we serve.
We rely on paper based systems & poor IT infrastructure, which drives over reliance on physical hearings to move cases forward. The result is to sink resources into estates and manual processing instead of good services.
We administer arcane processes that are hard to administer & even harder to navigate. Court is used to solve issues better dealt with elsewhere.
Resource and time allocation does not reflect the work being done – simple things can take a lot of time.
Justice Matters
The vision for crime reformThe Crime Programme will make the criminal justice system more robust and flexible and transform the way we
work, delivering efficiency and effectiveness. We will achieve this by:
• Improving and automating business processes – activities will be automated, reducing administrative effort
and avoiding errors and delays; online case management will be enabled
• Sharing data and information – access, appropriate to the relevant party, will be provided to the most up-to-
date version of the case at any time
• Enabling new ways of managing business processes by moving to structured data and away from document
images
• Eliminating re-keying and ending duplication of effort across CPS and HMCTS
• Driving a joined-up, standardised and simplified way of working to improve efficiency and quality, reducing
delays
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Justice Matters
Crime Programme Design Principles
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Preserve Judicial independence
Develop a design that is led by understanding the needs of victims, defendants, practitioners and witnesses
Improve engagement of public users in the Criminal Justice System
Ensure that proceedings and information requiring public access are transparent to the public
Work with others to provide better guidance, signposting and access to services through alternative digital channels
Have an approach that is clearly linked to business benefits with a view to all changes improving the effectiveness, efficiency and/or user experience of the system
Improve effectiveness through timely sharing of high quality information, thereby reducing delays
Reduce reliance on the physical courtroom where possible
Actions are taken in advance of hearings and in accordance with any directions or timetable
Develop a common process that reduces duplication across the CJS
Have a shared view of Case information
Be digital by design and use automation where appropriate
Have the right people in the right place at the right time
Develop processes such that criminal cases are clearly part of a common national model, with variations only where essential
Deliver a single source of management information
Develop a service which is futureproof and responsive to legislative or operational change
Justice Matters
Crime Programme Design Principles
Specific to technology
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Preserve Judicial independence
Develop a design that is led by understanding the needs of victims, defendants, practitioners and witnesses
Improve engagement of public users in the Criminal Justice System
Ensure that proceedings and information requiring public access are transparent to the public
Work with others to provide better guidance, signposting and access to services through alternative digital channels
Have an approach that is clearly linked to business benefits with a view to all changes improving the effectiveness, efficiency and/or user experience of the system
Improve effectiveness through timely sharing of high quality information, thereby reducing delays
Reduce reliance on the physical courtroom where possible
Actions are taken in advance of hearings and in accordance with any directions or timetable
Develop a common process that reduces duplication across the CJS
Have a shared view of Case information
Be digital by design and use automation where appropriate
Have the right people in the right place at the right time
Develop processes such that criminal cases are clearly part of a common national model, with variations only where essential
Deliver a single source of management information
Develop a service which is futureproof and responsive to legislative or operational change
Justice Matters
Who are our users?
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Judiciary Witnesses Victims Defendants
Advocates Defence firms Prosecutors Experts
PoliceProbation
ServiceWitness care
Youth Offending
Teams
Justice Matters
How do we know what users need?
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User needs
Judicial Working Group
Judicial Engagement
Groups
Operational staff seconded
to the programme
Regular court visits
User Researchers
Defence Practitioner
Working Group
Collaboration with CPS
Regular engagement
with other stakeholders
Working groups on specific
functionality
Validation of designs with
users
Feedback from people
using the system
Public Engagement
Events!
Justice Matters
The multi disciplinary team
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Strategic Design
& Engagement
Technical Design
& Architecture
Digital Delivery Implementation
Service
Managers
Business
Analysts
Technical
Architects
Delivery
managers
Tech Leads
Business
Change
Managers
Developers
Business
Product
Owners
Project Professionals
Service Owner
Subject Matter
Experts
Justice Matters
Our Target Operating Model: Crime path to 2023
By the end of 2020…
• Common Platform rolled out to first early adopter site and two new Court and Tribunal
Service Centres
• Incorporated new technology and ways of working into a national service which provided
support to new services. In addition to TfL and TVL, who were already using Common
Platform for Single Justice Procedures
• DVLA began using for Single Justice Procedure (SJP), following Transport for London and
TV Licensing
• Police forces in England and Wales also started to using the SJP process for COVID
regulation breaches
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Justice Matters
Our Target Operating Model: Crime path to 2023
By early 2022…
• All courts in England and Wales will be live on Common Platform
• DVLA and some Police forces will be prosecuting SJP offences using Common Platform
and some non-police prosecutors will start to use it too
• Staff will be moved into CTSCs working on reformed IT and processes
• Feasibility work on defendant engagement with Norfolk and Suffolk police forces will also be
completed
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Justice Matters
Our Target Operating Model: Crime path to 2023
By March 2023…
• Reform of all in scope Crime Services will have been achieved
• Criminal court measures contained in Judicial review and Courts Bill will have been enacted
• Areas previously in transition will be reformed, and all projects will be concluded by March
2023
• Additional functionality will have been introduced including interfacing CPS with the
Common Platform, replacing Digital Case System (DCS) in the Crown Courts, introducing
enhanced case progression functionality and integrating with new Scheduling and Listing
and publication solutions
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Justice Matters
Technological enablers for Reform
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Common PlatformSingle Justice
Service Video Hearings
Justice Matters
Single Justice Service
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SJS was designed to take simple, low-level cases, most of which only result in a financial penalty, out of
the court room where possible and appropriate. This means that:
• A higher volume of cases can be dealt with, as cases can be dealt with outside scheduled court times
in the Courts and Tribunals Service Centres (CTSCs)
• Hearings will be quicker and reduce the use of paper, forms, duplication and delay.
• Court staff no longer need to print thousands of sheets of paper each week and spend time preparing
and transporting physical files to and from court.
• Defendants are able to make a plea online if they choose to. This increases the speed by which such
cases are heard and resolved.
Justice Matters
Single Justice Service
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Around 850,000summary only, non-imprisonable
offences per year dealt with outside the courtroom
Over 95% of court
decisions made without need for a hearing, saving prosecutor,
magistrate, usher and courtroom resource.
Over 23,000Online Pleas received
more than
535,000 Make a
Plea interactions
1,742 Police
cases have been managed on Common Platform
Justice Matters
Common Platform
The Common Platform is the new digital case management system which brings together all the
relevant information about a criminal case from beginning to end. It will:
• Improve the process for everyone – from legal professionals to victims and defendants – whilst
also reducing costs and maintaining transparency.
• Replace old legacy systems with a single system providing access to all the material necessary to
deal with cases efficiently and effectively.
• Make the criminal justice system more robust and flexible.
• Help remove the manual handling of documents, duplication of process and the re-keying of
information.
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Justice Matters
Common Platform
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A total of 101courts are now using
Common Platform
This equates to
44% of courts
now live with Common Platform
47,290 cases
have been accepted onto the Common Platform
55,480Magistrates’ Court
hearings have been managed on Common Platform
7,353 Crown
Court hearings have been
managed on Common Platform
Justice Matters
Video Hearings• Many criminal hearings can take place using video or audio technology, removing the need for
participants to attend court in person, thus saving on time and costs.
• Audio and video technologies have long played a role in courts and tribunals. In response to Covid 19,
we rolled out a new interim videoconferencing technology, known as the Cloud Video Platform (CVP),
to support a range of remote hearings across England and Wales and to keep justice going. This
accelerated our work to design and deliver a bespoke Video Hearings Service as part of the
transformation of the courts and tribunals’ service.
• Currently we are transitioning from the interim Cloud Video Platform Solution to our end state video
hearing solution with roll out in the criminal jurisdiction planned for early 2022.
• The final decision about using video technology in any criminal hearing is always taken by the judge or
magistrates, and only when they believe it to be in the interests of justice to do so.
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Justice Matters
Video Hearings
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CVP has now been rolled out to all Magistrate
Courts and Crown Courts
in all 7 regions
All Magistrates and
Crown Courts that are open have the
capability to conduct video hearings
There have been over
350,000 court
hearings using the Cloud Video Platform
Justice Matters
What difference will it make?
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• All parties including the judiciary, solicitors and barristers, the Crown Prosecution Service and court
staff can securely access the most up-to date case information available.
• Digital ways of working make it easier to submit materials to the courts, and enable lawyers to
represent clients remotely where appropriate, saving time, effort and cost.
• Once a case is resulted, the results are shared immediately with all our CJS partners including the
police and the Legal Aid Agency without the need for clerical intervention.
• Notices, orders and warrants are generated and sent automatically once the result has been entered
on the system.
• Information and materials about cases stay with the case as it passes through the system, removing
the need for re-keying.
• Paper forms will be replaced with digital data capture meaning all information is in on place.
• Some business processes will be automated where appropriate, reducing administrative effort and
avoiding errors and delays.
• These efficiencies will reduce the cost of the courts to the taxpayer.
Justice Matters
We continue to learn and adapt
Getting this far has not been without challenges. We continue to proactively learn and adapt to address the challenges and we are getting better at doing this. Some of the initiatives we have introduced in this regard include:
• Better management of the issues log in terms of clarity of action required and accountability
• Establishing data to measure how well changes are been embedded in the courts and forecast demand
• Consolidating all existing common platform SOPs into a single end to end process thereby providing clarity of task and roles
• Embedding change by providing clarity of activities performed by each role in the court and CTSC
• Piloting new key functionality with model courts and model offices before national release
• Reducing the number of sources the business need to find answers by harmonising all guidance materials onto role based intranet pages
• Following feedback we have redesigned learning materials to be more accessible for end users
• The programme continues to reprioritised increments to ensure future delivery maximise areas of benefit for the business
• We continue to provide live support to the court to resolve day to day challenges
• We periodically conduct court site visits to see how CP works in reality
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Justice Matters
What’s next?• Evaluate progress and take feedback from all live sites feeding in lessons learned for planning and
preparing for roll out to the remaining courts
• Common Platform to be available in all courts by early 2022
• Police SJP roll out by the end of March 2022
• Further functionality will be introduced between now and the end of 2022 including:
• Enhanced case progression functionality
• Integration with the new Scheduling and Listing and publications solutions
• CPS case management system will be integrated into the Common Platform
• Non-Police Prosecutors will be onboarded to Common Platform
• Legacy systems in courts will be replaced
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Justice Matters
We can still do better. Tell us how!
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How could we improve our engagement with the public to ensure
the crime service meets their needs?
What additional technological
improvements do you expect or want to see?
Do you have any ideas for improving our
technology further?
Thank you for attending this session.
If you have any questions for the closing Q&A panel please email:[email protected]