CPS goes digital

updated on 18 October 2011

As reported in the Law Gazette, Director of Public Prosecutions Kier Starmer has vowed that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will become entirely paperless by April 2012. Starmer reportedly told a Law Society seminar that the criminal justice system needed to transform the way criminal cases are handled, including making digital files standard practice and passing digital information securely through a 'depository' that could be accessed by the defence, court and probation service. 

The Gazette reports that Starmer acknowledged that implementing the changes by April 2012 would be "challenging", but that the CPS was committed to meeting the deadline. He said: "We need to be radical. The challenges facing the criminal justice system provide an opportunity to radically reform the way we deliver criminal justice. We should seize that opportunity."

Despite acknowledging the need for increased IT use, former chairman of the Law Society criminal law committee Ian Kelcey expressed concern over the cost of acquiring the necessary equipment and said that "any technology has to work for the defence as well as for the prosecution".