§ Mr. CorbettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department over what period, and at what cost the West Midlands Probation Service and its partners are piloting the PHOENIX system to provide access to the national police computer. [43461]
§ Mr. MichaelThe pilot project commenced live operation in August 1997 and will end in July 1998. The total cost of the pilot project will be approximately £33,350. The costs were shared by the Home Office unit responsible for Co-ordination of Computerisation in the Criminal Justice System (78 per cent.), the West Midlands Probation Service (19 per cent.) and the Police Information Technology Organisation (3 per cent.). The main cost items of the project were equipment, software and communications charges and staff costs associated with the management of the project and the day-to-day operation of the PHOENIX computer terminal.
53WA formal evaluation report will be produced following the end of the live running period in July. Emerging findings from the pilot are encouraging. Previously, requests to the police for this information often took one to two weeks, whereas probation officers now have access to information on previous convictions within one to two days.