Legal departments: Reform for fair and effective justice

Modernising the courts and the Crown Prosecution Service to reduce delay and boost performance will be the result of the investment announced today by the Chancellor for the Lord Chancellor's and Law Officers' Departments as part of the Spending Review 2000.

Welcoming the announcement today, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine said:

"The funding secured today will help provide a comprehensive programme of modernisation to improve the efficiency of Criminal Courts in England and Wales. This is central to our plans and will allow the Court Service to build upon the work to modernise the Crown Court, which I announced on 26 May.
"There will also be an improved service for those who need to use the Civil Courts. We will achieve this through providing improved IT facilities through the Modernising the Civil Courts programme. In addition, there will be access to the widest possible range of remedies to civil disputes for those who do not need to use the Courts."

The Attorney General, Lord Williams, said:

"This is a good settlement for the Crown Prosecution Service. It will help the Crown Prosecution Service to address current problems and improve its performance. The new spending plans for the criminal justice departments recognise the links between the police, the prosecution and the courts and will encourage greater cooperation between them. As a result, performance will improve and the Criminal Justice System will be more effective. This will help restore public confidence in our ability to bring wrongdoers to justice."

The spending plans announced today also underpin the Government's commitment to continue to develop the Community Legal Service (CLS) which the Lord Chancellor launched on 3 April 2000. This will ensure that the provision of publicly funded Civil Legal Aid matches people's real priorities as well as increasing the value for money provided by the CLS Fund.

The plans include a substantial investment allowing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to integrate with its criminal justice system partners and play its full part in improving the performance of the CPS. Additional funds will be directed towards a CPS Performance Improvement Programme which will be focused on key performance measures and targets which include reducing delay and the number of adverse cases.

The plans also include provision for the CPS to take responsibility for communicating prosecution decisions direct to victims and witnesses once their case has begun. The aim is to increase confidence in the criminal justice system and encourage greater involvement in the criminal justice process.

Initiatives were also announced to improve the performance of the Northern Ireland Court Service as it implements with the Northern Ireland Office the recommendations of the Review of the Criminal Justice System; and to enhance the on-line services provided by the Public Record Office.

Key elements of the Public Service Agreements for the Lord Chancellor's and Attorney General's Departments confirmed today will help ensure that the Government continues to improve the delivery of justice by:

improving the service provided by courts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland through the installation of modern IT systems and through improved facilities. Information will be more readily available at courts and steps will be taken to ensure that civil judgements will be more enforceable;
continuing to improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system by reducing the delays between charge and disposal for all defendants and improving the presentation of cases in court. This will be done through more integrated information exchange, better management of cases, electronic handling of evidence, and greater capacity in the CPS;
increasing the satisfaction of the users of the justice system, especially that of jurors, victims and witnesses. The CPS's initiatives to communicate directly with victims and witnesses once their cases begin will contribute to this;
increasing by 5 per cent the number of people who are able to obtain legal assistance in priority areas of law by 2004; and
taking steps to control the cost of Legal Aid in Northern Ireland and ensure that it is targeted on those who need public provision the most.

The Government will improve the availability of the nation's records by increasing the availability of on-line access to the Public Records' Office archives.

Notes for editors

1. Lord Irvine, the Lord Chancellor, is responsible for the Lord Chancellor's Department, the Northern Ireland Court Service, the Public Record Office and HM Land Registry. The spending plans for HM Land Registry were not dealt with in SR2000 as it is a trading fund. The spending plans for the years 2001/02 to 2003/04 for Lord Irvine's other three departments are:

£ million	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Total Lord Chancellor*	2,635	2,719	2,772	2,782
LCD Legal Aid	1,672	1,627	1,632	1,639
Other	963	1,092	1,140	1,143
of which: Resource Budget	2,557	2,653	2,699	2,709
Capital Budget	78	66	73	73
* Departmental Expenditure Limit

2. For details of the Community Legal Service, please refer to LCD's press notice 107/00 of 3 April 2000. For further information on the Criminal Defence Service, refer to LCD's press notices 206 and 207/00 of 13 June 2000. For further information on the Crown Courts Programme, refer to LCD's press notice 171/00 of 26 May 2000

3. Lord Williams, the Attorney General, is responsible for the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office and the Treasury Solicitor's Department. The spending plans for the years 2001/02 to 2003/04 for the Attorney General's three departments are:

£ million	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Total*	352	422	432	444
of which: Resource Budget	339	408	426	439
Capital Budget	13	14	6	5
* Departmental Expenditure Limit

1. For further details contact the Lord Chancellor's Department press office on 020 7210 8512, or the Crown Prosecution Service press office on 020 7796 8341.