§ Mr. Ben ChapmanTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will make a statement on the appointment of justices of the peace. [2612]
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Original estimated cost Original completion date Actual cost (£) Actual completion date Contractors involved Consultants retained Comments Nexus Office Automation System £600,000 April 1996 660,666 April 1996 Seimens-Nixdorf Computacenter, Foxlan BACCHUS Case Management System £721,476 July 1994 808,931 July 1994 MIDAS Management Information and Accounting System £627,850 January 1995 641,301 January 1995 Oracle SOAP Office Automation System £754,700 April 1996 775,065 April 1996 Seimens-Nixdorf, Bull MIS (Management Information System) £14,356,000 December 2001 14,825,000 Spring 2003 Within the scope of the Department's existing PR contract with CSL Group Ltd. This project is still ongoing and therefore, the costs and dates shown are the latest estimates. The costs shown relate to the provision of the service over the life of the system and include physical rollout, training, and on-going service charges MANIFEST (Integrated Estate Management and Finance System) £4,868,000 December 2000 5,240,000 February 2001 Within the scope of the Department's existing PFI contract with CSL Group Ltd. The costs shown relate to the provision of the service over the life of the system and includes physical rollout, training, and on-going service charges LOCCS (Various court-based IT systems) £25,000,000 October 1996 107,000,000 September 2003 EDS Masons, Kermon, Charterhouse bank. Myriad Baseline costs are unchanged, the estimated costs to the end of the contract (£107 million) includes very significant additional services MASS Development £1,100,000 March 1995 2,700,000 June 1997 Admiral Computing Ltd.
§ Mr. WillsMy noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor is keen that the social composition of the magistracy reflects the community it serves, subject to all magistrates fulfilling the merit criteria for appointment. Advisory committees are required to ensure that benches reflect the community in terms of gender, ethnic origin, geographical spread, occupation and political affiliation. My noble Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster requires his advisory committees to do the same. Work is under way to develop a national strategy for the recruitment of lay magistrates and to find a viable alternative to the use of political affiliation as a measure of social balance.