MAGISTRATES' COURTS: Accenture set to deliver system

The troubled project to standardise technology across magistrates' courts in England and Wales has reached delivery stage with the award of a 39 million five-year contract to consultancy firm Accenture.

The first phase of the Libra project - to roll out a national infrastructure and office automation products, such as e-mail, Internet browsing, word processing and spreadsheets - was highly criticised for the soaring costs and huge delays.

It was finally completed in July.

The new contract is for the actual delivery of services through the IT infrastructure which has so far cost 318 million to construct, rather than the 146 million originally envisaged.

Accenture will deliver a service using specialised software for case management and tracking, payment of fines, and court administration.

The software is being developed and supported by STL Technologies, which was awarded a five-year 35 million contract earlier this year.

A Department for Constitutional Affairs spokeswoman confirmed that Accenture was not the only bidder, but would not reveal how many others were involved.

The then Lord Chancellor's Department was criticised for awarding the 146 million contract to a sole bidder, ICL - now Fujitsu Services.

Continuing problems with ICL meant the contract was renegotiated to bring in a separate software supplier (see [2002] Gazette, 8 August, 15).

Courts minister Chris Leslie said the project would help speed up the time courts take to deal with offenders, provide a standardised national system in the courts, and enable case information to be transferred electronically between the courts and the other criminal justice agencies.

He added: 'Accenture will start work immediately to integrate and test the software as well as train the 11,000 courts staff.

Roll out to the first of the 42 magistrates' courts committees (MCC) will begin late next year and should be implemented in all courts by the end of 2005.

'Accenture will also provide a management information system data warehouse which will give national statistics on MCC performance.'

Rachel Rothwell