§ Lord Dixonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the current position on the provision of IT to magistrates’ courts. [HL5034]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Lord Filkin)It was announced in July 2002 that the Libra project would be delivered by way of three separate contracts. The delivery of the infrastructure underpinning the system was contracted to Fujitsu Services until 2006–07 at the time of that announcement. I can inform the House that the remaining contracts are now in place. Accenture (UK) Ltd, has today been awarded a five-year, £38.5 million, contract to deliver a service using specialised software for case management and tracking, payment of fines and court administration to the magistrates' courts in England and Wales. Case management seeks to speed up the courts process by implementing better ways of working. The contract to develop and support the special software was awarded in January 2003 to STL Technologies, part of the Technology Group. That five-year contract is worth £35 million.