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Transforming the CJS: Court Reform and the Common Platform (II)

Paul Whittaker CBEPolice Foundation Annual Conference 2016

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Current CJS context

• Largely 19th century CJS Process• Same process for simple cases• Unmanaged digitisation so far• E-mail & discs replace paper files• HMIC – police swamped with digital material• Joint aim – harness all benefits of digital

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• Part of overall Court Reform Programme

• Partnership programme between HMCTS, CPS and Police with joint SRO’s

• To create a single (“common”) cross CJS digital data store and suite of services based on user needs, unifying and transforming the criminal process

• Transformational business change driven by new purpose built technology – not digitising today’s processes

• To deliver a fully streamlined, automated and wherever possible on-line CJS

What is Common Platform?

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Court Reform Model

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What is Common Platform?

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•An in house build with technical partners and contractors following Agile principles

•Over 300 people based in CPS buildings in Croydon, Southwark and regionally

•Internal product development teams led by civil servants – experienced business users

•Business experts used to guide agile development, working with development teams sourced through government framework contracts

•Building on case data input by Police systems via TWIF interface for structured data and new interface for multi-media – minimising business change. Will develop API’s

•Based around the needs of users, understood through user research

How are we delivering?

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• Developing a high level vision and business model agreed with key stakeholders was vital and provides a blueprint for delivery – we re-imagined the CJS with benefit of modern technology and with physical hearings only where absolutely necessary

• First agile business change programme in any department - is at the leading edge of culture and process change – touch points with governance, commercial, IA.

• Working with the business from an early stage is vital to ensure they understand incremental delivery and that the business change is adequately planned.

• Working in very complex brownfield environment – legacy business process, IT, police interface, legislative and procedure rule changes

Key lessons so far

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Risks• Large scale digital programmes are inherently risky. The supporting technology does not exist as an ‘off

the shelf’ package.

• There are dependencies with other agencies that present risks to the effectiveness and timeliness of delivery. They include:

– Police – No national approach to IT and variable picture with police force readiness for digital working. Giles York, lead for the Digital First Programme, is now joint-SRO for CPP, and sits on the Board.

– Judiciary – ensuring that the judiciary are working digitally and understand the iterative nature of large agile programmes is key to delivering the full benefits. The necessary judicial leadership is driven by the Lord Chief Justice and Senior Presiding Judge, who sits on the Common Platform Board.

– Defence – Defence providers may not want to take up the service or be equipped to do so. To help manage this, new contracts with Legal Aid Agency for undertaking criminal legal aid work make digital working mandatory.

• Moving to a more digital/virtual space does present some significant challenges in order to maintain an open and transparent justice system

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Two elements

• Automated Track Case Management Digitising the single justice process All summary non-imprisonable offences Currently 850,000 cases each year

• Core Case Management All other criminal cases Introducing on-line case management Shared store of all material required to complete cases

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When ?

• Single Justice Service (ATCM)

Pilot on TfL cases – Spring 2017 Extension to TVLO, DVLA and police motoring cases On-line plea and resulting Automated fines

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When ?

• Core Case Management 5 Releases over end to end process Pilot – Liverpool Crown Court Starts with pre-charge case submission and CPS

charging decision Extends to all case management Services to CPS, HMCTS, Defence & Judiciary Starts January 2017

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Magistrates’ Court RotaAllows magistrates to log on to a system from home or via a mobile device,

and quickly and easily enter their availability. The system then automatically produces rotas, matching 20,000 magistrates with court sittings, and makes these available to the Magistrates online.

Online PleaAllows a defendant to log on to a system from home or a mobile device, see

the details of their alleged offence and make a plea online. This speeds up the process for the defendant, removes large amounts of administrative work in preparing cases and frees prosecutors from having to attend court.

Digital Mark Up (in court resulting)An intuitive screen, pre-populated with key case information that allows the

Legal Advisor in court to record the case outcome into the IT system immediately the sentence/disposal is announced and triggers the appropriate notifications and documentation to support/enforce that decision.

What have we delivered already?

Progress NRO complete

Currently live in 39 sites, complete as far as possible awaiting police IT changes

Beta service pilot in one site with anticipated national roll out Q1, 2017

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Automated Track Case ManagementSingle Justice Procedure allows for 850,000 summary only, non

imprisonable offences per year to be dealt with outside the courtroom by a single justice. Over 95% of court decisions can be made without need for a hearing. Automated Track Case Management will implement an end to end digital solution for SJP cases that deals with high volume cases, independent of the legacy system.

Benefits• Frees up court space and time to deal with more serious

matters• Flexibility in administering the service regardless of location• Early processing bulk cases rapidly.

What will we deliver next?Progress Private beta completes November 2016 for Transport for London cases.

Anticipated national roll out:

TfL – 2016TVL, DVLA, Police – 2017Others - 2018

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C2I - Pre-charge to Initial Details of the Prosecution CaseImproving connection with police to give prosecutors immediate

access to multi-media evidence (video and audio files, CCTV, photos and plans) when a charge has been made. It will also automatically create the initial details of the prosecution case (IDPC), reducing manual work and speeding up the process.

Benefits• CPS currently produce approx. 50,000 bundles per month.

Through Common Platform parties will be able to access this information directly online, reducing administrative effort and speeding up the process

• Flexibility in administering the service regardless of location• Early access for defence leading to fewer cracked and

ineffective trials, freeing court and agency resources from unnecessary hearings.

What will we deliver next?Progress In development and due to pilot in Liverpool from October, 2016

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GPE2E – Guilty Plea End to End-(Part of CCM)Receiving the sent case from the magistrates’ court, automating the process of

recording dates for parties to submit evidence and comply with court directions, allocating a judge and scheduling a sentencing hearing; Resulting cases and immediately notifying parties.

Benefits• Results guilty plea cases end to end on Common Platform – around 40% of

cases enter initial plea of guilty and could be resolved at the first hearing• Begins to automate case progression and prompt on activities due, ensuring

only cases with adequate information will be scheduled for sentencing, beginning to address ~50% of sentencing hearings that are currently ineffective – primarily due to lack of information, especially pre-sentence reports

• Ability for Probation to access case material, upload pre-sentence reports and receive results in a timely manner

• Ability for validation and notification of results to third parties, minimising secondary HMCTS administrative checking functions and enabling third parties to receive relevant results swiftly

• Begins to replace functionality currently in CREST and Xhibit legacy systems putting down the foundations for their replacement

What will we deliver next?Progress In development, due for releases from 2017

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Core Case Management – Crown Court Core Case management software will be developed for future

releases that:

• allow the prosecution, defence and legal decision maker to collaborate and progress a case online; and

• monitor the progress of a case, applications and compliance with court directions

• Allow decommissioning of legacy systems.

This will ensure the most effective use of court and judicial time, reduce rework and administrative effort and improve the experience of court users.

Following introduction in Crown Courts will be extended into magistrates courts

What will we deliver next?Progress Conceptual release sequence agreed.

Next release will be defined in 2017.

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Policing & CJS CP

• Partnership with Police Digital First Programme• CJS CP has police SRO• Multimedia• Structured Data• MoU, MoG• Data Standards, TWIF

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Challenges for Policing

• Common cross CJS business and data standards

• MoJ Data Principles• Consistent processes and data quality• Implementation of two way interface• Provision of digital asset management solution

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Opportunities for Policing

• Streamlined file build & DCF• CJS CP direct access PNC• Single CJS data store solution for multi-

media• API

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