§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they intend to abandon the Libra computer program for the transfer of information within the criminal justice system; if so, what are their reasons; and what will be the consequences both for public expenditure and for the criminal justice system. [HL4311]
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine of Lairg)The Government have no intention of allowing the Libra program to fail. Delivery of a central part of the contract—the office infrastructure and network is—over 70 per cent complete and office services are being delivered to over 8.500 magistrates' court staff. This infrastructure will enable magistrates' courts to link up with other parts of the criminal justice system, as was always planned.
We remain determined to provide magistrates' courts with modern computer equipment and standardised IT software. There have been delays in delivering the software application but discussions are currently under way with Fujitsu Services (formerly ICL) on this aspect of the project. These will be concluded shortly, and an announcement will be made on the way forward.