Poor technology 'lets down' UK courts

Lord Justice Brooke warned that the justice system is in danger of disintegrating if an investment of at least £500m is not made.

"Information technology systems have been lousy, leading to serious delays and in some cases serious miscarriages of justice," he told the technology news magazine Computing.

Lord Justice Brooke, who is chairman of the Judges' Standing Committee on IT, said the system was suffering from 15 years of neglect.

Cutting red tape

According to an Audit Commission report, problems with IT systems have cost the criminal justice system an estimated £80m a year.

It said that vital information held on the police national computer is often out of date and called for an integrated computer system to allow the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to communicate more effectively.

Six months ago the government set up the Criminal Justice Information Technology unit to implement an IT strategy across police forces, courts and the probation service.

Running alongside that the government is looking at reducing the amount of paperwork in the police force. The Home Office Policing Bureaucracy Taskforce is due to report in July on ways of cutting red tape.

Joining the dots

Part of its remit was to look at the part technology could play, said Superintendent Neil Grant-Salmon, who is on the committee.

"The police force is not joined-up in terms of information," he said.

"The personal details of a suspect can be entered in systems up to 18 times from arrest to going to court."

Wiltshire police force is leading the way in e-policing. It is planning to equip its officers with handheld computers to allow them to log in to information remotely.

The force is also working on joining up all the computer systems across the county and allowing other forces access to the information.