Court employees claim that a £300 million IT system is “threaten[ing] justice” because the “fundamentally faulty” software is causing important data to be lost or changed.
Legal advisors have issued a warning that the Common Platform system is reportedly manipulating case information, such as pleas and outcomes.
A court employee told the BBC that they were shocked to see that a driving ban that had been correctly entered into the system had changed.
Magistrates’ court legal adviser, James, told the BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 Programme that he put in a man’s driving ban on Common Platform but when he went to access it later on it had changed.
Legal advisers have warned the system, Common Platform, is allegedly changing information about cases, such as pleas and results. (Stock image)
He told the BBC: ‘The results that appeared on Common Platform were not the results we imposed.
‘It’s a good job we remembered the case otherwise it would have been missed.
‘That’s scary because this person wouldn’t have been disqualified, they’d have been on the road – a threat to others.’
The government has insisted there is no evidence justice is being undermined but some court staff have branded the IT system ‘fundamentally flawed’.
Other staff have warned of occasions when information has disappeared on the system, such as pleas and case results.
The File on 4 programme reports that there was another instance where a person was forced to stay in prison for days longer than they should have, due to a fault with the system.
Common Platform was rolled out across 136 courts in England and Wales in 2020, having been built to replace an outdated piece of software.
By the beginning of next year, the other 40% of courts that are not already using Common Platform will.
Judges, attorneys, the CPS, and courts can all access case information using Common Platform.
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union said that the courts service disregarded warnings regarding the IT system and its flaws.
From September 10 to 18, legal advisors and court associates are scheduled to engage in industrial action on the use of Common Platform.
Some court staff have voted to take strike action over the ‘fundamentally flawed’ Common Platform IT system. (Stock image)
The PCS Union said the strike was over the courts service failing to address the system’s ‘negative impact on members’ health, safety and welfare’.
They also criticized Common Platform’s continued rollout and said that the courts service had “gaslit” members over the achievement of the £300 million initiative.
According to a spokeswoman for HM Courts and Tribunal Service, “Common Platform is important to modernizing the court system – replacing outdated technologies that are unfit for purpose and freeing up court workers for the work they can bring the greatest value to.”
“It has now handled more than 158,000 criminal cases satisfactorily, and there is no evidence that Common Platform is undermining the integrity of the court system or endangering parties.”
‘We will continue to work closely with staff to support them through this transition and want to thank all the judges, court staff and others who have contributed to its design and implementation.’
Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), which represents barristers in England and Wales, outside the Old Bailey, central London, in June on the first of several days of court walkouts by CBA members in a row over legal aid funding
Courts have been plagued with backlogs due to the pandemic, with some victims waiting up to five years to get a court date.
The backlog of crown court trials stood at 58,271 in April this year, and recently Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has accused industrial action staged by barristers for exacerbating this further.
Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have been staging walkouts on alternate weeks and have voted in favour of an indefinite, uninterrupted strike.
Ministry of Justice figures show more than 6,000 court hearings have been disrupted by the dispute over conditions and Government-set fees for legal aid advocacy work.