With technology looking certain to feature strongly in Sir Brian Leveson’s plans for cracking the Crown court backlog, justice ministers were this week browsing for bright ideas. In what was described as a Dragons’ Den-style pitch, seven companies (whittled down from over 90 submissions) demonstrated gizmos to James Timpson, prisons and probation minister (pictured).  

James Timpson

Source: Parliament.co.uk

Finalists included companies developing AI home monitoring to ensure convicted offenders comply with licence conditions. Other ideas included ‘smell detector’ devices which use synthetic brain cells and AI to replicate the functions of a human nose. ‘The tech will help deliver enhanced surveillance and detect the use of drugs, such as spice or fentanyl, offering prison and probation a swift way to detect drugs and boost staff safety,’ the MoJ’s press team gushed.   

‘Prisons and probation are working in analogue while tech drives forward a new digital age,’ Timpson enthused. No doubt Sir Brian’s proposals will pass the sniff test. 

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