Executive summary

1  Magistrates' courts are a key element of the criminal justice system. They dispose of 95 per cent of criminal cases prosecuted in England and Wales and have important links with other courts and enforcement agencies. The 42 local Magistrates' Courts Committees are responsible for the effective administration of the magistrates' courts in their areas. They employ around 11,000 staff in total.

2  Magistrates' Courts Committees are independent bodies answerable for their performance to the Lord Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor's Department (the Department) has a role in monitoring the performance of Committees but it remains for each Committee to decide on how best to provide an efficient and effective service within its area. The Department also has a role in issuing guidance and will encourage Committees to adopt it. Magistrates' Courts Committees receive 80 per cent of their funding from the Department and the remaining 20 per cent from local authorities.

3  Magistrates' courts have undergone a period of significant change since the Police and Magistrates' Courts Act 1994, with the number of Committees reducing from 105 to 42. Further changes are included in the Courts Reform Bill introduced in 2002 paving the way for a merger of the magistrates' courts with the other criminal, civil and family courts in England and Wales.

4  IT systems in magistrates' courts have been inadequate for many years. Magistrates' Courts Committees use different systems and have different working practices. Current systems do not allow information to be shared electronically with other courts and electronic information transfer to other enforcement agencies is piecemeal. The Government decided in the early 1990s to develop a national standard IT strategy for magistrates' courts.

5  In 1998 the Department signed a PFI contract with ICL1 to develop a national standard IT system called Libra (Figure 1). The Court Service, an Executive Agency of the Department, took over responsibility for the project in July 2001 when it took over other responsibilities for magistrates' courts. This report examines the progress made in implementing the Libra project. The methodology we used is set out in Appendix 1.

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1  In April 2002 ICL became known as Fujitsu Services.