Improving the Crime Service through technology - Annual Public User Event 2021 Jayne Gardner - GOV.UK

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Improving the Crime Service through technology - Annual Public User Event 2021 Jayne Gardner - GOV.UK
Improving the Crime Service
through technology
Annual Public User Event 2021
Jayne Gardner

Justice Matters
Improving the Crime Service through technology - Annual Public User Event 2021 Jayne Gardner - GOV.UK
Why are we reforming the crime service?

                                                     We rely on paper based systems &
                                                     poor IT infrastructure, which drives
           The criminal justice system is designed
                                                     over reliance on physical hearings to
           around experts rather than the citizens
                                                     move cases forward. The result is to
           we serve.
                                                     sink resources into estates and manual
                                                     processing instead of good services.

           We administer arcane processes that
                                                     Resource and time allocation does not
           are hard to administer & even harder
                                                     reflect the work being done – simple
           to navigate. Court is used to solve
                                                     things can take a lot of time.
           issues better dealt with elsewhere.

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Justice Matters
Improving the Crime Service through technology - Annual Public User Event 2021 Jayne Gardner - GOV.UK
The vision for crime reform
The Crime Programme will make the criminal justice system more robust and flexible and transform the way we
work, delivering efficiency and effectiveness. We will achieve this by:

 •   Improving and automating business processes – activities will be automated, reducing administrative effort
     and avoiding errors and delays; online case management will be enabled
 •   Sharing data and information – access, appropriate to the relevant party, will be provided to the most up-to-
     date version of the case at any time
 •   Enabling new ways of managing business processes by moving to structured data and away from document
     images
 •   Eliminating re-keying and ending duplication of effort across CPS and HMCTS
 •   Driving a joined-up, standardised and simplified way of working to improve efficiency and quality, reducing
     delays

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Justice Matters
Crime Programme Design Principles
                                     Develop a design that is led                                   Ensure that proceedings and
                                                                     Improve engagement of
     Preserve Judicial               by understanding the needs                                     information requiring public
                                                                     public users in the Criminal
     independence                    of victims, defendants,                                        access are transparent to the
                                                                     Justice System
                                     practitioners and witnesses                                    public

                                     Have an approach that is
     Work with others to provide     clearly linked to business
                                                                     Improve effectiveness
     better guidance, signposting    benefits with a view to all                                    Reduce reliance on the
                                                                     through timely sharing of
     and access to services          changes improving the                                          physical courtroom where
                                                                     high quality information,
     through alternative digital     effectiveness, efficiency                                      possible
                                                                     thereby reducing delays
     channels                        and/or user experience of the
                                     system

     Actions are taken in advance
                                     Develop a common process                                       Be digital by design and use
     of hearings and in                                              Have a shared view of Case
                                     that reduces duplication                                       automation where
     accordance with any                                             information
                                     across the CJS                                                 appropriate
     directions or timetable

                                     Develop processes such that
                                                                                                    Develop a service which is
                                     criminal cases are clearly
     Have the right people in the                                    Deliver a single source of     futureproof and responsive to
                                     part of a common national
     right place at the right time                                   management information         legislative or operational
                                     model, with variations only
                                                                                                    change
                                     where essential

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Justice Matters
Crime Programme Design Principles
                               Specific to technology
                                    Develop a design that is led                                   Ensure that proceedings and
                                                                    Improve engagement of
    Preserve Judicial               by understanding the needs                                     information requiring public
                                                                    public users in the Criminal
    independence                    of victims, defendants,                                        access are transparent to the
                                                                    Justice System
                                    practitioners and witnesses                                    public

                                    Have an approach that is
    Work with others to provide     clearly linked to business
                                                                    Improve effectiveness
    better guidance, signposting    benefits with a view to all                                    Reduce reliance on the
                                                                    through timely sharing of
    and access to services          changes improving the                                          physical courtroom where
                                                                    high quality information,
    through alternative digital     effectiveness, efficiency                                      possible
                                                                    thereby reducing delays
    channels                        and/or user experience of the
                                    system

    Actions are taken in advance
                                    Develop a common process                                       Be digital by design and use
    of hearings and in                                              Have a shared view of Case
                                    that reduces duplication                                       automation where
    accordance with any                                             information
                                    across the CJS                                                 appropriate
    directions or timetable

                                    Develop processes such that
                                                                                                   Develop a service which is
                                    criminal cases are clearly
    Have the right people in the                                    Deliver a single source of     futureproof and responsive to
                                    part of a common national
    right place at the right time                                   management information         legislative or operational
                                    model, with variations only
                                                                                                   change
                                    where essential

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Justice Matters
Who are our users?

                  Judiciary    Witnesses        Victims      Defendants

                  Advocates   Defence firms   Prosecutors     Experts

                                                               Youth
                               Probation
                   Police                     Witness care   Offending
                                Service
                                                              Teams

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Justice Matters
How do we know what users need?
                                                           Defence
                                                          Practitioner   Collaboration
                                                           Working        with CPS
                                                                                            Regular
                                                            Group
                                               User                                      engagement
                                            Researchers                                    with other
                                                                                         stakeholders
                                                                                                          Working
                            Regular court                                                                groups on
                               visits                                                                     specific
                                                                                                        functionality

                 Operational
                                                                                                                        Validation of
               staff seconded
                                                                                                                        designs with
                    to the
                                                                                                                           users
                 programme

      Judicial                                                                                                                    Feedback
                                                                                                                                 from people
    Engagement                                                                                                                     using the
      Groups                                                                                                                        system

    Judicial
    Working
                                                                   User                                                              Public
                                                                                                                                   Engagement
     Group
                                                                  needs                                                              Events!

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Justice Matters
The multi disciplinary team

     Strategic Design     Technical Design       Digital Delivery   Implementation
      & Engagement         & Architecture

                                                     Delivery         Business
                             Business
      Service Owner                                 managers           Change
                             Analysts
                                                                      Managers
                                                   Tech Leads
         Service             Technical                              Subject Matter
        Managers             Architects            Developers          Experts

         Business
         Product
         Owners

                                   Project Professionals

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Justice Matters
Our Target Operating Model: Crime path to 2023
By the end of 2020…

•   Common Platform rolled out to first early adopter site and two new Court and Tribunal
    Service Centres

•   Incorporated new technology and ways of working into a national service which provided
    support to new services. In addition to TfL and TVL, who were already using Common
    Platform for Single Justice Procedures

•   DVLA began using for Single Justice Procedure (SJP), following Transport for London and
    TV Licensing

•   Police forces in England and Wales also started to using the SJP process for COVID
    regulation breaches
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Justice Matters
Our Target Operating Model: Crime path to 2023
By early 2022…

•   All courts in England and Wales will be live on Common Platform

•   DVLA and some Police forces will be prosecuting SJP offences using Common Platform
    and some non-police prosecutors will start to use it too

•   Staff will be moved into CTSCs working on reformed IT and processes

•   Feasibility work on defendant engagement with Norfolk and Suffolk police forces will also be
    completed

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Justice Matters
Our Target Operating Model: Crime path to 2023
By March 2023…

•   Reform of all in scope Crime Services will have been achieved

•   Criminal court measures contained in Judicial review and Courts Bill will have been enacted

•   Areas previously in transition will be reformed, and all projects will be concluded by March
    2023

•   Additional functionality will have been introduced including interfacing CPS with the
    Common Platform, replacing Digital Case System (DCS) in the Crown Courts, introducing
    enhanced case progression functionality and integrating with new Scheduling and Listing
    and publication solutions

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Justice Matters
Technological enablers for Reform

       Single Justice
          Service       Common Platform    Video
                                          Hearings

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Justice Matters
Single Justice Service
 SJS was designed to take simple, low-level cases, most of which only result in a financial penalty, out of
 the court room where possible and appropriate. This means that:
 •   A higher volume of cases can be dealt with, as cases can be dealt with outside scheduled court times
     in the Courts and Tribunals Service Centres (CTSCs)
 •   Hearings will be quicker and reduce the use of paper, forms, duplication and delay.
 •   Court staff no longer need to print thousands of sheets of paper each week and spend time preparing
     and transporting physical files to and from court.
 •   Defendants are able to make a plea online if they choose to. This increases the speed by which such
     cases are heard and resolved.

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Justice Matters
Single Justice Service

           850,000                      Over  95%           of court
    Around
    summary only, non-imprisonable
                                      decisions made without need for
                                       a hearing, saving prosecutor,
                                                                         Over 23,000
      offences per year dealt with
                                      magistrate, usher and courtroom    Online Pleas received
         outside the courtroom
                                                  resource.

                               more than

                     535,000                Make a
                                                            1,742        Police
                                                         cases have been managed
                            Plea interactions              on Common Platform

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Justice Matters
Common Platform
The Common Platform is the new digital case management system which brings together all the
relevant information about a criminal case from beginning to end. It will:
•   Improve the process for everyone – from legal professionals to victims and defendants – whilst
    also reducing costs and maintaining transparency.
•   Replace old legacy systems with a single system providing access to all the material necessary to
    deal with cases efficiently and effectively.
•   Make the criminal justice system more robust and flexible.
•   Help remove the manual handling of documents, duplication of process and the re-keying of
    information.

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Justice Matters
Common Platform
                               This equates to
                  101                             47,290 cases
     A total of
   courts are now using
                              44% of courts          have been
    Common Platform            now live with      accepted onto the
                             Common Platform      Common Platform

                     55,480              7,353 Crown
                  Magistrates’ Court      Court hearings
                    hearings have           have been
                  been managed on          managed on
                  Common Platform        Common Platform
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Justice Matters
Video Hearings
•   Many criminal hearings can take place using video or audio technology, removing the need for
    participants to attend court in person, thus saving on time and costs.
•   Audio and video technologies have long played a role in courts and tribunals. In response to Covid 19,
    we rolled out a new interim videoconferencing technology, known as the Cloud Video Platform (CVP),
    to support a range of remote hearings across England and Wales and to keep justice going. This
    accelerated our work to design and deliver a bespoke Video Hearings Service as part of the
    transformation of the courts and tribunals’ service.
•   Currently we are transitioning from the interim Cloud Video Platform Solution to our end state video
    hearing solution with roll out in the criminal jurisdiction planned for early 2022.
•   The final decision about using video technology in any criminal hearing is always taken by the judge or
    magistrates, and only when they believe it to be in the interests of justice to do so.

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Justice Matters
Video Hearings

CVP has now been rolled   All Magistrates and      There have been over
  out to all Magistrate
Courts and Crown Courts
                          Crown Courts that are
                             open have the
                                                   350,000 court
                                                  hearings using the Cloud
   in   all 7 regions     capability to conduct
                             video hearings
                                                      Video Platform

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Justice Matters
What difference will it make?

 • All parties including the judiciary, solicitors and barristers, the Crown Prosecution Service and court
   staff can securely access the most up-to date case information available.
 • Digital ways of working make it easier to submit materials to the courts, and enable lawyers to
   represent clients remotely where appropriate, saving time, effort and cost.
 • Once a case is resulted, the results are shared immediately with all our CJS partners including the
   police and the Legal Aid Agency without the need for clerical intervention.
 • Notices, orders and warrants are generated and sent automatically once the result has been entered
   on the system.
 • Information and materials about cases stay with the case as it passes through the system, removing
   the need for re-keying.
 • Paper forms will be replaced with digital data capture meaning all information is in on place.
 • Some business processes will be automated where appropriate, reducing administrative effort and
   avoiding errors and delays.
 • These efficiencies will reduce the cost of the courts to the taxpayer.

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Justice Matters
We continue to learn and adapt
Getting this far has not been without challenges. We continue to proactively learn and adapt to address the
challenges and we are getting better at doing this. Some of the initiatives we have introduced in this regard include:
•   Better management of the issues   log in terms of clarity of action required and accountability
•   Establishing data   to measure how well changes are been embedded in the courts and forecast demand
•   Consolidating all existing common platform SOPs into a single end to end process thereby providing clarity of
    task and roles
•   Embedding change by providing clarity   of activities performed by each role in the court and CTSC
•   Piloting new key functionality with model courts and model offices before national release
•   Reducing the number of sources the business need to find answers by harmonising all guidance materials
    onto role based intranet pages
•   Following feedback we have redesigned  learning materials to be more accessible for end users
•   The programme continues to reprioritised increments to ensure future delivery maximise areas of benefit for
    the business
•   We continue to provide livesupport to the court to resolve day to day challenges
•   We periodically conduct court site visits to see how CP works in reality
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    Justice Matters
What’s next?
• Evaluate progress and take feedback from all live sites feeding in lessons learned for planning and
  preparing for roll out to the remaining courts
• Common Platform to be available in all courts by early 2022
• Police SJP roll out by the end of March 2022
• Further functionality will be introduced between now and the end of 2022 including:
    • Enhanced case progression functionality
    • Integration with the new Scheduling and Listing and publications solutions
• CPS case management system will be integrated into the Common Platform
• Non-Police Prosecutors will be onboarded to Common Platform
• Legacy systems in courts will be replaced

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Justice Matters
We can still do better. Tell us how!
                  How could we improve
                  our engagement with        What additional
                   the public to ensure       technological
                     the crime service    improvements do you
                   meets their needs?     expect or want to see?

                              Do you have any ideas
                                for improving our
                               technology further?

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Justice Matters
Thank you for attending this session.

If you have any questions for the closing Q&A
panel please email:
changesomethingthatmatters@justice.gov.uk
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