The Legal Aid Agency is looking to become ‘wholly digital’ in the next 18 months, a senior executive said last week.  

Speaking at the Law Society’s annual legal aid conference, the agency’s finance and performance director Catherine Little (pictured) said nearly two-thirds of transactions at the agency are already completed and processed digitally.

Little said: ‘We’re looking to be wholly digital over the course of the next 18 months. But a lot of work is done in some vulnerable sections of society, so there may be some areas where it is not right to be digital.’

The agency is designing an offline version of its client and cost management system, which will enable practitioners to work on tablets and mobile devices when not connected with the host system.

Little also said that the agency will pilot a digital app that allows practitioners to submit their bills online.

Mark Barrington, national defence lead at the CJS efficiency programme, revealed that solicitors able to access their Criminal Justice Secure eMail (CJSM) accounts will be able to use Apple and Android devices, which they are currently unable to do.

The CJSM service allows people in the criminal justice system to send emails containing sensitive data.