Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has to ensure a smooth rollout of the Common Platform in Crown Courts.

We are already live in 67 Crown Courts with 10 remaining, and we have learnt and adjusted our approach in the ways of working with the Judiciary and CJS partners. To date 369,447 cases have been accepted onto the Common Platform, and 521,812 hearings have been managed on Common Platform in the Crown Court.

We recognise introducing a new digital system and business processes is challenging and we are working with Judiciary and CJS partners to embed the changes.

Common Platform has been designed for its users, incorporating their experiences and feedback at every stage. Experienced staff and Judges have been directly involved throughout the design, testing and implementation of Common Platform. Their knowledge and expertise have been instrumental in developing the system.

We have a Defence Practitioners Working Group and a Judicial Working Group who have been closely involved in the design of the functionality and how it will be used. We started with discussions about what requirements users have, then mocked these up into visual images for validation with our users, and to ensure we’ve correctly interpreted their requirements. Once the designs are finalised, the functionality is developed. As soon as functionality has been developed, we have arranged demonstrations for users. We are now organising User Acceptance Testing and training, as well as opportunities for users to come and see the new functionality in order to get an idea of the look and feel of it. We are also planning to bring some pieces of functionality to early adopter courts before rolling out wider. Once new functionality has been implemented, we have a robust feedback process in place to ensure any issues are identified and resolved quickly.

Feedback from Common Platform users is important for us to make implementation as smooth as possible. We have a newly established feedback process to capture concerns and suggestions from staff and this has improved the way we manage feedback and keep them directly updated on how it is being used, through a range of measures. These include a new digital form, monthly feedback webinars, and allocating senior sponsors to all regions to act as independent escalation points.