Criminal courts should be fully digital by 2016 after the government announced plan to invest £160m in IT systems across the courts and criminal justice agencies.
Justice minister Damian Green said the investment would include Wifi in the majority of 500 court houses; “digital evidence screens” in court for CCTV footage, video and audio evidence, and other digitally-presented evidence; police-to-court video links; new “court presentation and collaboration software”; and new IT where needed by the police and court system to reduce the use of paper.
Green said about 160 million sheets of paper are used by the courts and Crown Prosecution Service each year.
The action plan, “Transforming the Criminal Justice System” proposes greater use of digital working in the police and CJS so that building case files from the street and giving evidence via video-link is the norm not the exception. Legislation will be brought forward so that low-level crimes such as TV licence evasion and some traffic offences are dealt with outside of magistrates’ courts, while police will give digital updates to victims of more serious crimes.
Currently, a “digital court” is being piloted at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court. Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court is about to test digital evidence presentation in its courtroom.
A digital Crown Court jury trial pilot is to be conducted shortly in Croydon Crown Court, under the direction of His Honour Judge Tanzer and Professor Cheryl Thomas.
Peter Lewis, CPS chief executive, said the funding would “move us much closer towards the goal of eliminating paperwork throughout the life of a criminal case—and all of the costs and waste that come with it”.
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