New Technology (Hansard, 5 April 1995)

Mr. John M. Taylor

The question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executive of the 1171W Court Service is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked him to reply direct.

Letter from Michael Huebner to Mr. Gordon Prentice, dated 5 April 1995:

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION: TECHNOLOGY USED TO SPEED UP COURT WORK You will know that it is the practice for Chief Executives of Agencies to reply direct to Members of Parliament who have tabled written Parliamentary Questions. As The Court Service became an Executive Agency on 3 April the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, has therefore asked me to reply to your question about new technology in the courts. Several computer systems have been, or are being, introduced into the county courts to speed up court work. For example, the Summons Production Centre (SPC) and the County Court Bulk Centre (CCBC) deal with large quantities of summonses and post-issue process for major plaintiffs, such as the water industry and finance companies. The SPC issued 1.6 million default summonses for fixed amounts, in 1994 and is operated by only six staff. Both the SPC and CCBC are highly automated. As a result, we can guarantee that summonses will be issued and dispatched within 24–48 hours at the SPC and that judgments will be entered and warrants of execution issued within 48 hours at the CCBC. Electronic links between the CCBC and the 100 largest courts have recently been established. This allows warrant information to be transferred overnight from the CCBC to the local courts so that the warrant can be in the hands of the bailiff the next day. County Courts also have 'stand alone' computer systems to help with accounting functions for handling suitors' cash payments and for monitoring the progress of warrants. In addition, a new computer system, called CaseMan, is under development and is currently being installed at 6 pilot sites. CaseMan is a database system that will allow court records to be stored and documents to be produced electronically. In due course, CaseMan will be developed to support a wide range of functions including those carried ut by the stand alone systems mentioned earlier. Finally, in the Crown Court a strategic system was developed in 1989 and has progressively been installed in all Crown Court centres. All centres now have comprehensive support through the Crown Court Support System (CREST) for case progression, listing, accounting and payment of costs.