UK technology consulting company Scrumconnect Consulting today (7 December) announced that it has been awarded a two-year digital transformation services contract by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS). The £12.75m contract sees Scrumconnect become the sole supplier for HMCTS’s ‘Common Platform’, which is the single digital platform for new criminal court cases in England and Wales, intended to transform how the criminal justice system uses, manages and shares data.
The rollout of the Common Platform is a central part of HMCTS’s Service Reform Programme to improve courts and tribunals. Since August 2023, every Crown and magistrates’ court has had access to the Common Platform, allowing for quicker and more seamless information sharing between all those involved in criminal justice cases.
With the Common Platform, all relevant case materials will be available to stakeholders including the police, judiciary, lawyers and criminal justice agencies in one central online location across all criminal courts. This applies to data from arrest through to trial and for those convicted or on the prison and probation service.
As of 1 October 2023, the Common Platform had accepted over 500,000 cases onto the system and managed over 860,000 hearings in the Crown and magistrates’ court. Scrumconnect Consulting will be responsible for maintaining the platform and building new automation features to further improve information sharing and data accuracy across the justice system.
Praveen Karadiguddi, CEO of Scrumconnect Consulting, said: “The Common Platform is a fundamental part of HMCTS’s programme to modernise the criminal court system while it moves away from time consuming paper-based processes and disparate IT systems. We look forward to playing an important role in delivering a robust platform that makes it easy for accurate and up-to-date information to be accessed across the judicial system.”