§ Mr. John TaylorTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will make a statement about delays at the Court of Protection; whether they derive from the recent re-location of that service; and whether its filing systems have been affected by the move. [48734]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe Court of Protection, which is the Judicial 'arm' of the PGO, continues to deal with any work that it receives very speedily. In 2001–02, over 90 per cent. of submissions received from the PGO were processed within five working days. However, there have been recent delays in the PGO (which provides the administrative support to the court) which have impacted on the overall service delivery received by the court's clients.
It is correct to say that the recent relocation of the court and the PGO, which is now complete, has been a contributing factor to the cause of the delays. The PGO is very conscious indeed of the need to improve its services and reduce delay and much work is being done to address this.
All 25,000 plus case dossiers were moved from the PGO's old location to Archway and the new filing system has taken some time to bed down. A pilot of an electronic file scanning system, using bar codes, is about to start which it is hoped will considerably improve the ability to manage records more effectively. This will be a precursor to the development and implementation of the new electronic case record management system ('MERIS') which is due to be operational within the next 18 months and will ultimately reduce reliance on paper dossiers.