The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has signed IT and business consultancy CGI for a range of digital services in support of the HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) Common Services suite.
This includes the Common Platform digital case management system for the courts, progress on which was recently criticised in a report from the National Audit Office (NAO).
According to the contract notice, CGI will supply continuous improvement squads to support HMCTS in the delivery of digital services within the Common Services suite, under a three-year contract valued at almost £25 million.
There are five main elements in the service provision: DevOps, digital definition, build and transition, end-to-end development and data management.
Purpose and problems
The roll out of the Common Platform began in 2020 to provide secure access to case information for all parties involved in magistrates and crown courts.
But the NAO report said that, although the programme is nearing its end and the budget has been increased, it is not expected to be fully delivered this year as planned or to its full scope, with a number of performance issues causing stress for users.
HMCTS chief executive Nick Goodwin recently indicated that the roll out is being extended into 2024.
The organisation has indicated that by March 2023 the system had gone live in 173 criminal courts – three quarters of the total – accepted over 300,000 cases, managed over 560,000 hearings and onboarded legal professionals from over 1,650 firms.
