CPS trials case management system

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) plans to start pilots for its new case management technology by the end of this year.

The Compass project is a £200m partnership between the CPS and Logica to develop an electronic case management system to help streamline the service and reduce reliance on paper case files.

The project will be vital to the government's plans for a single electronic case file accessible across the whole criminal justice system covering the police, the CPS, courts, and probation and prison services.

Pilots of the initial version of Compass will allow the police and the CPS to exchange secure email, and are due to start in three area offices in December. The national roll out should be completed by the end of 2003, replacing four separate systems.

The second phase, creating an electronic case file on a single database, will be delivered by the end of 2004.

The impact on the CPS will be enormous, says director of business information systems Lonny Carey.

'Compass will transform the way we work and the way we transact with others, and enable us to play our part in joined up justice.'

[blob] The Northern Ireland Office plans to spend £35m on a ten-year technology contract for its Causeway programme to join up criminal justice.