CPS on case by 2005

COMPASS: system will help case failure analysis

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is gearing up to roll out its COMPASS case management system across all of its 42 branches by the end of 2005, it has announced.

The move follows last year's pilots - developed with IT specialists Logica in Guildford, Stafford and Leeds - and will mean replacing the four different systems currently used by the CPS.

COMPASS is designed to fit in with the set-ups used by other organisations in the criminal justice system, with electronic links to the police force and - via e-mail - with the courts, Prison Service and Probation Service.

It will also enable CPS staff to create and send printed forms to victims and witnesses.

Training will be tailored according to their roles in the organisation.

It is hoped that the expansion of COMPASS will facilitate co-operation and liaison between the CPS and police, in particular in the provision of 24-hour pre-charge assistance and advice.

It will also allow them to develop a joint case outcome analysis to focus on avoidable case failure.

Under this system, the reasons for judge-ordered and judge-directed acquittals in individual cases will be jointly assessed for training needs and other joint strategies to improve performance.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir David Calvert-Smith, said COMPASS would be a great boost for the CPS.

'Almost with one bound we have gone from last to first in IT terms within the criminal justice system,' he said.

'From going to an office in 1999 and seeing not a single screen on a single desk anywhere, we now have what I think is the most advanced case management IT system, either up and running in some areas or about to be rolled out.'

Paula Rohan