§ 36. Mr. SweeneyTo ask the Attorney-General what steps he is taking to improve the efficiency of the Crown Prosecution Service through the use of information technology. [274]
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe Crown Prosecution Service is currently a key participant in pilot projects at Ipswich and Southampton which provide an e-mail link to the courts, the police, the probation service and legal practitioners to improve communication and reduce paperwork.
§ Mr. SweeneyI am grateful for that good news about the pilot project. Does my right hon. and learned Friend 910 agree that information technology has great potential to improve communications between all agencies involved in the criminal justice system, to save unnecessary adjournments and generally to help all the parties to obtain better service from the system?
§ The Attorney-GeneralI strongly agree with my hon. Friend. I have just seen the e-mail project at Ipswich; it shows how extraordinarily valuable that piece of technology is to a service that deals with several other agencies. It is now possible for the Crown Prosecution Service to raise any number of points with the police or the courts and receive in minutes an answer that would otherwise involve dictating letters, getting them typed, getting them faxed, sending them, waiting for the post and waiting for letters to come back, be processed, registered and read. The whole process can be shortcut so that what probably took days now takes minutes. I commend that impressive project.