A presentation by Paul Whittaker CBE, Common Platform Transformation Director, CPS, on how digital technology will transform the interface between policing and the criminal justice system - delivered at the Police Foundation's annual conference 'Policing and justice for a digital age' December 2016.

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Transforming the CJS:
Court Reform and the Common
Platform (II)
Paul Whittaker CBE
Police Foundation Annual Conference 2016

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Current CJS context
• Largely 19th
century CJS Process
• Same process for simple cases
• Unmanaged digitisation so far
• E-mail & discs replace paper files
• HMIC – police swamped with digital
material
• Joint aim – harness all benefits of digital2

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• Part of overall Court Reform Programme
• Partnership programme between HMCTS, CPS and Police with joint
SRO’s
• To create a single (“common”) cross CJS digital data store and suite of
services based on user needs, unifying and transforming the criminal
process
• Transformational business change driven by new purpose built
technology – not digitising today’s processes
• To deliver a fully streamlined, automated and wherever possible on-line
CJS
What is Common Platform?

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Court ReformModel

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What is Common Platform?

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•An in house build with technical partners and contractors following Agile principles
•Over 300 people based in CPS buildings in Croydon, Southwark and regionally
•Internal product development teams led by civil servants – experienced business users
•Business experts used to guide agile development, working with development teams
sourced through government framework contracts
•Building on case data input by Police systems via TWIF interface for structured data and
new interface for multi-media – minimising business change. Will develop API’s
•Based around the needs of users, understood through user research
How are we delivering?

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• Developing a high level vision and business model agreed with key
stakeholders was vital and provides a blueprint for delivery – we re-imagined
the CJS with benefit of modern technology and with physical hearings only
where absolutely necessary
• First agile business change programme in any department - is at the leading
edge of culture and process change – touch points with governance,
commercial, IA.
• Working with the business from an early stage is vital to ensure they
understand incremental delivery and that the business change is adequately
planned.
• Working in very complex brownfield environment – legacy business process,
IT, police interface, legislative and procedure rule changes
Key lessons so far

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Risks
• Large scale digital programmes are inherently risky. The supporting technology does not exist
as an ‘off the shelf’ package.
• There are dependencies with other agencies that present risks to the effectiveness and
timeliness of delivery. They include:
– Police – No national approach to IT and variable picture with police force readiness for
digital working. Giles York, lead for the Digital First Programme, is now joint-SRO for CPP,
and sits on the Board.
– Judiciary – ensuring that the judiciary are working digitally and understand the iterative
nature of large agile programmes is key to delivering the full benefits. The necessary
judicial leadership is driven by the Lord Chief Justice and Senior Presiding Judge, who sits
on the Common Platform Board.
– Defence – Defence providers may not want to take up the service or be equipped to do so.
To help manage this, new contracts with Legal Aid Agency for undertaking criminal legal
aid work make digital working mandatory.
• Moving to a more digital/virtual space does present some significant challenges in order to
maintain an open and transparent justice system

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Two elements
• Automated Track Case Management
 Digitising the single justice process
 All summary non-imprisonable offences
 Currently 850,000 cases each year
• Core Case Management
 All other criminal cases
 Introducing on-line case management
 Shared store of all material required to complete cases
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When ?
• Single Justice Service (ATCM)
 Pilot on TfL cases – Spring 2017
 Extension to TVLO, DVLA and police motoring cases
 On-line plea and resulting
 Automated fines
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When ?
• Core Case Management
 5 Releases over end to end process
 Pilot – Liverpool Crown Court
 Starts with pre-charge case submission and CPS
charging decision
 Extends to all case management
 Services to CPS, HMCTS, Defence & Judiciary
 Starts January 2017
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Magistrates’ Court Rota
Allows magistrates to log on to a system from home or via a mobile device,
and quickly and easily enter their availability. The system then
automatically produces rotas, matching 20,000 magistrates with court
sittings, and makes these available to the Magistrates online.
Online Plea
Allows a defendant to log on to a system from home or a mobile device, see
the details of their alleged offence and make a plea online. This speeds
up the process for the defendant, removes large amounts of
administrative work in preparing cases and frees prosecutors from having
to attend court.
Digital Mark Up (in court resulting)
An intuitive screen, pre-populated with key case information that allows the
Legal Advisor in court to record the case outcome into the IT system
immediately the sentence/disposal is announced and triggers the
appropriate notifications and documentation to support/enforce that
decision.
What have we delivered
already?
Progress
NRO complete
Currently live in 39
sites, complete as
far as possible
awaiting police IT
changes
Beta service pilot in
one site with
anticipated national
roll out Q1, 2017

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Automated Track Case Management
Single Justice Procedure allows for 850,000 summary only, non
imprisonable offences per year to be dealt with outside the
courtroom by a single justice. Over 95% of court decisions can
be made without need for a hearing. Automated Track Case
Management will implement an end to end digital solution for
SJP cases that deals with high volume cases, independent of
the legacy system.
Benefits
• Frees up court space and time to deal with more serious
matters
• Flexibility in administering the service regardless of location
• Early processing bulk cases rapidly.
What will we deliver next?
Progress
Private beta
completes
November 2016
for Transport for
London cases.
Anticipated
national roll out:
TfL – 2016
TVL, DVLA, Police
– 2017
Others - 2018

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C2I - Pre-charge to Initial Details of the Prosecution Case
Improving connection with police to give prosecutors immediate
access to multi-media evidence (video and audio files, CCTV,
photos and plans) when a charge has been made. It will also
automatically create the initial details of the prosecution case
(IDPC), reducing manual work and speeding up the process.
Benefits
• CPS currently produce approx. 50,000 bundles per month.
Through Common Platform parties will be able to access this
information directly online, reducing administrative effort and
speeding up the process
• Flexibility in administering the service regardless of location
• Early access for defence leading to fewer cracked and
ineffective trials, freeing court and agency resources from
unnecessary hearings.
What will we deliver next?
Progress
In development
and due to pilot in
Liverpool from
October, 2016

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GPE2E – Guilty Plea End to End-(Part of CCM)
Receiving the sent case from the magistrates’ court, automating the process of
recording dates for parties to submit evidence and comply with court directions,
allocating a judge and scheduling a sentencing hearing; Resulting cases and
immediately notifying parties.
Benefits
• Results guilty plea cases end to end on Common Platform – around 40% of
cases enter initial plea of guilty and could be resolved at the first hearing
• Begins to automate case progression and prompt on activities due, ensuring
only cases with adequate information will be scheduled for sentencing, beginning
to address ~50% of sentencing hearings that are currently ineffective – primarily
due to lack of information, especially pre-sentence reports
• Ability for Probation to access case material, upload pre-sentence reports and
receive results in a timely manner
• Ability for validation and notification of results to third parties, minimising
secondary HMCTS administrative checking functions and enabling third parties
to receive relevant results swiftly
• Begins to replace functionality currently in CREST and Xhibit legacy systems
putting down the foundations for their replacement
What will we deliver next?
Progress
In development,
due for releases
from 2017

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Core Case Management – Crown Court
Core Case management software will be developed for future
releases that:
• allow the prosecution, defence and legal decision maker to
collaborate and progress a case online; and
• monitor the progress of a case, applications and compliance
with court directions
• Allow decommissioning of legacy systems.
This will ensure the most effective use of court and judicial time,
reduce rework and administrative effort and improve the
experience of court users.
Following introduction in Crown Courts will be extended into
magistrates courts
What will we deliver next?
Progress
Conceptual release
sequence agreed.
Next release will be
defined in 2017.

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Policing & CJS CP
• Partnership with Police Digital First
Programme
• CJS CP has police SRO
• Multimedia
• Structured Data
• MoU, MoG
• Data Standards, TWIF17

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Challenges for Policing
• Common cross CJS business and data
standards
• MoJ Data Principles
• Consistent processes and data quality
• Implementation of two way interface
• Provision of digital asset management
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Opportunities for Policing
• Streamlined file build & DCF
• CJS CP direct access PNC
• Single CJS data store solution for multi-
media
• API
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