§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government: What reductions have been made to the "modernising the civil courts programme" during the three years to April 2003, as a result of the rejection of the funding bid by HM Treasury last year. [HL4323]
9WA
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Lord Filkin)The Court Service announed its plans to modernise the civil and family courts in a report published May 2002. That report made it clear that the ambitious scope of the programme would require some additional funding from central funds. In the event these funds were not allocated as part of the 2002 spending review. Government investment focused on the Crown Court in recognition of its role in the criminal justice system.
This decision had no impact on plans during the three years to April 2003, but will have an impact on the speed at which the modernisation programme can be implemented. We remain committed to modernising the civil and family courts and will push ahead with our plans to introduce modern IT-based services for all court users.
This will include developing new online services to complement our highly successful Money Claim Online service, installing a new IT infrastructure in a wide number of courts, opening the courts up to email services, and continuing to improve the IT services provided to the judiciary.