1.8 In 1981 the Public Accounts Committee criticised the Home Office3 for its lack of initiative in examining the scope for computerisation of magistrates' courts and encouraging computerisation where appropriate. The Committee recommended that the Home Office should look at the scope for improving efficiency and economy through further computerisation and co-ordination and also monitor the performance of existing systems.4 Following the Committee's report, the Home Office set up a study team to examine and evaluate the use of computers in magistrates' courts. The subsequent report,5 published in 1987, criticised the existing arrangements on two main counts: the lack of objectives and priorities at national level; and the wide variations in local organisation and practice.
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| The main changes affecting Magistrates' courts since 1994 |
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| 1994 | The Police and Magistrates' Courts Act reformed the organisation and management of the Magistrates' Courts Committees, providing clearer lines of accountability, both locally and with central government, and allowed the amalgamation of Committees. |
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| 1994-1997 | A number of voluntary amalgamations took place, reducing the number of Magistrates' Courts Committees from 105 to 96. |
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| 1999-2001 | A major programme of amalgamations took place reducing the number of Committees from 96 to 42, aligned with police authority boundaries. |
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| April 2001 | Magistrates' courts took over responsibility for enforcement of fines from the police. |
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| October 2001 | Lord Justice Auld's report "Review of the Criminal Courts in England and Wales" published, recommending major changes to the criminal courts. |
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| 2002-2003 | Courts Reform Bill introduced paving the way for the unification of the criminal courts. This is expected to result in a single agency covering all courts in England and Wales by April 2005. |
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| Source: Lord Chancellor's Department | |
1.9 In 1989 an internal Home Office scrutiny of magistrates' courts (the "Le Vay" report) recommended that a common IT strategy for magistrates' courts should be developed as quickly as possible. It called for a systems analysis of the work flows for each of the basic functions in the magistrates' courts. It suspected that there might be inefficiencies in existing applications of IT as a result of simply computerising each of the steps hitherto done manually.
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3 The Home Office was responsible for magistrates' courts until 1992.
4 Sixth Report from the Committee of Public Accounts, Session 1980-81.
5 "Evaluation of the use of computers in magistrates' courts: the way forward".