MoJ urged to put ICT at heart of business strategy

The House of Commons Justice Committee says the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) must make information and communication technology (ICT) an integral part of its business strategy so that it knows where to target improvements.

In its report – The budget and structure of the MoJ – the committee said that at a time when funds are scarce it is essential that the MoJ can achieve the greatest benefit through the minimum cost.

The report said better project management should help to keep control of the ICT projects the MoJ chooses to proceed with.

The committee recommended that for any future ICT projects, a project and programme management leader should be appointed on the basis that, wherever possible, they will follow that project from inception to implementation and be the senior responsible owner for it.

The report highlighted that the MoJ recognised that to meet Spending Review targets of reducing its budget by 23 per cent by 2014-15 would necessitate radically new ways of working.

“Cost reduction is the primary driver behind the MoJ’s strategic IT plan, but it is also important that ICT supports other MoJ initiatives, such as the rehabilitation revolution, modernising courts, reforming legal aid and improving frontline services. The department’s view is that best value can be achieved by providing shared ICT services with local solutions,” said the report.

The complexity and history of the MoJ organisation – as well as that of some of its ‘arm’s length bodies’ – has resulted in the wide number of IT systems in use. In 2010-11, the estimated annual cost of ICT to the MoJ was £590 million, which included shared services, the Legal Services Commission and the major arm’s length bodies such as the Youth Justice Board.

The MoJ told the committee: “Our ICT Transformation Programme was completed last year and while maintaining levels of operational service and improving project delivery it contributed to more than £20 million of cost savings. Over the next three to five years it is intended to further reduce ‘run and maintain’ ICT costs by over £100 million through replacing or renewing all major ICT supplier contracts under our Future IT Sourcing (FITS) programme. In procuring by service tower we will standardise services across MoJ, making them much more economic.”

In evidence to the committee, the Law Society pointed to a long history of under-investment in court ICT. It said that it was difficult to evaluate the MoJ’s use of IT because of the complex history of its IT, inheritance of legacy systems and the changing landscape of government ICT overall.

The MoJ said it sought to tackle long-term data and systems problems by including a ‘management information’ programme in its Transforming Justice work. The Prison Reform Trust also commented that IT decision-making in the prison estate was hit and miss and left to area managers.

The Prison Reform Trust told the committee that if the criminal justice system was to act as a proper system, a pre-requisite was a single information base.

Digital justice

The Criminal Justice Efficiency Programme, which is a joint effort between the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the police and HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), is now delivering the comprehensive electronic transfer of documentation around the system.

The committee was told that by April 2012, all movement of paper between police, CPS and magistrates’ courts would be done electronically, replacing old paper systems: “It was not a massively complicated IT system, but required the use of something like digital vault technology from which users could download data into their own systems. It would take some time to get similar technology into the Crown Court. There would also be police to court video-links in place in every magistrates’ court in the country and every Crown Court room by the end of the next financial year, enabling people to give evidence without necessarily being moved from prison.”