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"The programme has so far delivered a pilot of fully-video hearings in the tax tribunal, a new in-court system to record the result of cases digitally and instantly, a civil money claims service for low-value cases, and online divorce and probate services."

It's funny, isn't it. The extradition courts work with paper files and yet they seem to work surprisingly well. Perhaps because they're based at Westminster where the Chief Magistrate also sits. Perhaps also because there are so many cases that if there WERE to be a delay, it would lead to a horrendous jam in other parts of the system.

My point is, where there's a will, there's a way. The Civil Service certainly has people worth their weight in gold without whom it would have already collapsed. But it also has huge numbers of people who couldn't find work in the private sector if their life depended on it; people who've lost all motivation (if they ever had any) and who have no incentive or impetus to make things better.

For example, and this is not an exaggeration, in London magistrates' courts, there are full time "maintenance" staff who do very little all day long. One security guard told me that he finds one of them asleep on a regular basis in his office. That's not the way to run a court system. Counter-intuitively, targets make the situation worse as people fudge what happens to suit the targets, rather than just doing a better job.

Meanwhile, those who have some initiative are quickly bogged down in the quagmire of bureaucracy and inertia. The only projects pushed through are those which will give somebody on top a promotion while not having any discernible benefit to those at the bottom, including court users.

It's enough to make you cry.

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