The criminal justice White Paper proposes that Secure eMail be used to facilitate justice - and lawyers must be ready, writes Mr Justice Hooper

Within just a few years, communication by e-mail has become widespread throughout the country.

We now communicate by e-mail with our relatives, friends, colleagues and numerous government and private organisations all over the world.

The Hutton enquiry revealed the extent of the use of e-mail within the government - perhaps to the embarrassment of some of the senders.

One corner of this land has, by and large, remained immune to this revolution in communication - the criminal justice system.

Why? Many of those involved in the system did not have any access to the Internet, and the effective use of e-mail requires all in the 'loop' to have e-mail access.

There was a legitimate concern about security - much criminal justice material is sensitive and should not fall into the wrong hands.

All this is now changing, thanks to the government's commitment - given in the White Paper 'Criminal Justice: Justice for All' - that by the end of 2005 all criminal justice professionals will have the capability to e-mail each other securely.

And thanks also to the enthusiastic director and staff of Criminal Justice Information Technology (CJIT).

The vehicle of change is called 'Secure eMail' - e-mail that is secure from prying eyes en route, and the security of which must be maintained by the addressor and addressee.

Secure eMail is simple for those criminal justice agencies on secure IT systems with secure access to the Internet.

Criminal courts are now receiving the necessary cabling, hardware and software so that judges and those who administer the courts can communicate securely with each other and with the outside world.

Secure eMail is only a little less simple for criminal justice practitioners, almost all of whom will already be fully computerised.

Barristers and solicitors who practise criminal law will be invited to join up to Secure eMail.

Once the CJIT is satisfied that the required security measures are in force, those lawyers will be able to communicate with the courts and other criminal justice agencies, such as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), by Secure eMail knowing what they send and receive will be secure.

In my capacity as chairman of the judicial advisory group concerned with information technology and the criminal courts, I recently visited Chelmsford Crown Court to discuss the Essex Secure eMail pilot.

The Essex CPS wishes to encourage barristers to use e-mail to communicate speedily and securely with counsel prosecuting their cases.

I hope that solicitors in Essex will also come to see the advantages of Secure eMail in the near future.

The Court Service is now working on a series of e-mail templates for use by court staff and is also investigating the development of templates for use by the CJS practitioners when communicating with the court.

My goal, and that of the advisory group, is the introduction of electronic files for all criminal cases from start to finish.

The introduction of Secure eMail is an important step towards that goal.

But there is one important point - Secure eMail will only work efficiently if all those involved in the criminal justice system sign up.

LINK: www.cjit.gov.uk/secure_email_faq.html

Mr Justice Hooper took Silk in 1987 and was appointed a High Court judge in the Queen's Bench Division in 1995.

He was Presiding Judge of the North Eastern Circuit from 1997 to 2000