2.51 The Department estimated that the contract and other project costs for this option would be £318 million and £72 million respectively, making a total cost of £390 million. The Department's aims for this option were:
■ to protect the continuing provision of the infrastructure services to Magistrates' Courts Committees, to ensure that the planned roll-out continued to conclusion and to provide early delivery of the necessary infrastructure improvements;
■ to protect the continuing provision of existing services, which support the business of the magistrates' courts. Given that two of the existing systems were frail and could experience serious support problems, the Department considered it essential to have a robust, alternative system available as soon as possible.
2.52 The Department considered that STL supplied the best of the existing systems but that it needed some enhancement. The STL system, unlike the ICL and Unisys systems, has been updated to run on a modern server and has new software available which covers new areas of support. The Department therefore considered it capable of meeting the current business needs of Magistrates' Courts Committees and the wider criminal justice system. The Department told us that STL's system already represented most of the functionality expected from ICL's development of Libra. Any significant shortfalls, such as support for accounting in the larger amalgamated Magistrates' Courts Committees could be added by STL as part of a contract with the Department. Differences between what Libra would have delivered and what STL would then deliver would be minor and could be added progressively if necessary after roll-out.
2.53 Independent advisers assessed STL's capability and concluded that STL was capable of enhancing its EQUIS system to provide a support service to all Magistrates' Courts Committees. They considered, however, that STL would not have the capacity to roll out the software, including the migration processes, in a reasonable timescale. This function would therefore need to be handled by a separate systems integrator.