Police file information will be shared directly with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) under a new IT system launched last month in an effort to streamline the prosecution process.

In a first step towards unified criminal justice, an electronic interface between police custody files and prosecution files has gone live in Rugby, Warwickshire.

Police files will be accessible by the CPS, removing the need for re-inputting data, and reducing delays and errors.

The new custody programme will lead to paper-free police custody suites and will include a series of prompts to custody sergeants to ensure custody procedures are entirely compliant with legal requirements.

A case preparation programme used by the CPS will then manage the process of building case files, based on information from the police's custody programme.

The systems will allow the courts to update the police national computer in real time, with trial outcomes visible immediately.

So far the government has invested 69 million in custody and case preparation systems, which should be rolled out nationally by 2004/5.

Warwickshire Chief Constable John Burbeck said: 'Once an offender is arrested, the police service provides most of the information required for the prosecution to proceed.

We will now be able to ensure that information is delivered more quickly to our partners, especially the CPS and the courts.

'More importantly we will be able to keep victims and witnesses better informed about their case.

These products are key to modernising the criminal justice system.'

Meanwhile, John Suffolk, former operations director and managing director of Britannia Building Society, has been appointed director general of the criminal justice IT unit.

He will be responsible for seeing through the 1.2 billion programme to deliver co-ordinated IT across the criminal justice system.

Rachel Rothwell