Suppliers consulted on the future of IT in courts

The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) is working with suppliers to consider the future for Court IT systems.

Existing IT contracts for DCA headquarters, Crown and County Courts, and Magistrates' Courts expire between 2006 and 2008, so the department is evaluating its strategy for re-competition and considering how new deals would best be structured.

Possibilities include a single contract to make the most of nationwide economies of scale.

The combined deals are currently worth around £80m per year and include the troubled Libra project for Magistrates' Courts.

The DCA's Development, Innovation and Support Contracts (Disc) programme began in January and is working with supplier trade body Intellect and Whitehall procurement arm the Office of Government Commerce through the new Concept Viability Forum.

The Forum was launched last December to help departments 'sound out' the market before entering formal negotiations.

'The department hopes that early engagement with suppliers will help to identify workable solutions, reduce procurement time and costs for both sides and encourage competition, leading to robust contracts providing quality services with good value for money,' said a DCA spokeswoman.