The prime minister Tony Blair has admitted that many of the UK's
criminal justice IT systems are "still in the dark ages", and has
promised major technology investment across the sector.
Speaking at the Modernising Criminal Justice international
conference in London earlier this week, Blair said, "Many of our
criminal justice IT systems are still in the dark ages in
comparison to other jurisdictions and leading-edge private sector
organisations."
However, the Government is planning a significant investment to
improve criminal justice IT.
Blair said, "There will be a major investment in IT right across
the system - in the courts, Crown Prosecution Service and police."
This will enable them all to communicate effectively, he added.
The prime minister said that specific details of the Government's
planned reform of criminal justice system IT will be contained in a
white paper that is due to be published shortly.
Earlier this week a damning report from the Audit Commission said
that inadequate IT is contributing to delays and inefficiencies
across the criminal justice system. Auditors also highlighted the
lack of IT interoperability between key criminal justice agencies.
The criminal justice system has suffered a series of embarrassing
IT failures during a period when the system was under pressure to
improve efficiency.
A new case-management system for probation officers, dubbed Crams,
is due to be replaced after complaints from staff, and magistrates
courts are still waiting for a case-management application that was
supposed to be supplied by a £319m public finance initiative with
ICL. Meanwhile, MPs have criticised the police for holding
inaccurate records on the Police National Computer.