Criminal justice system set for digital transformation with £160m government investment
The UK government will invest £160m to digitise court procedures in England and Wales following a successful pilot at Birmingham Magistrates' Court.
Going digital: The government is investing £160m
The move, dubbed 'Transforming the Criminal Justice System', will enable court documents to be swapped and accessed in court through secure Wi-Fi connections, scrapping the need for adjournments in court commonly made because paper documents have to be fetched from another location.
Plans extend beyond the court room itself and include encouraging police to use mobile devices to begin building case files from the street; making video-link evidence from police more common than having to appear in court; and developing the 'Track My Crime' system, which allows victims of crime to communicate with officers dealing with their case and track its progress.
The government also aims to remove cases such as TV licence evasion and minor traffic offences from the magistrates' court system.
The government described the current system as "an outdated reliance on paper" and said the investment would turn the court system into a modern public service. The announcement builds on procedures already in place in England and Wales in court allowing CPS lawyers to send documents to defence lawyers using tablet devices.
The Crown Office in Scotland announced in February that iPads would be introduced in court rooms for the first time to allow court officials to review and manage case documents in court.