Officials at HM Courts Service (HMCS) say they have
turned around a failing£447m project to provide a national case management system
for magistrates courts- a scheme that is 16
years late and willcost nearly three times more than
expected.
HMCS change managers say they have been standardising business
practices in courts and "not just delivering an IT system", since
they took direct control of the project in January 2007.
Officials have told Computer Weekly that
independent Gateway reviews of the Libra project have
progressed from a red warning light in 2006 to amber last March and
last month to green.
Libra, which is in 83 courts, is due to be rolled out to all 370
magistrates courts in England and Wales by the end of December.
HM Courts Service has changed direction by attempting to shape
new business processes around the specific needs of those who work
in the courts, rather than imposing any central diktat.
Executives on the change management team say they are rolling
out new IT and business practices based on what works best in the
courts, and validating it in live operation.
The project has turned around from
its position in 2003, when the National Audit Office criticised
a different management team for using IT "to support existing
processes" rather than "re-engineering processes with new IT".
But the cost has risen from £146m to an expected £447m by March
2008, and it is expected to rise further as links are developed
between Libra, the police and other parts of the public sector.
Since 1992, civil servants and a range of suppliers have tried
unsuccessfully to replace court IT systems with a single national
system to help speed up the time taken to deal with suspects and
offenders.
Control of the project passed between government departments,
including the Home Office, Lord Chancellor's Department and the
Department for Constitutional Affairs until HMCS's change
management team took direct charge.
Karen Wheeler, change programme director at HMCS, told her board
about the state of Libra in 2006. It was then on hold pending
software fixes and there were "significant applications and
supplier issues" - and no plans to take forward new processes and
business change.
The software is now being supplied by STL. Accenture has handled
the integration.
A spokesman for HM Courts Service said the green light at a
Gateway review last month "does not diminish the challenges and
risks the project still faces but recognised these were being
managed". There is "increased confidence the project will deliver
successfully".
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