Project Overview
An HMCTS-contracted specialist digital supplier building a court listing management pilot for a UK Crown Court...
Technology Stack
Compliance & Standards
The Challenge
An HMCTS-contracted specialist digital supplier building a court listing management pilot for a UK Crown Court wanted to modernise manual court diary management. 840 cases per year managed across 12 courtrooms. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) case management system integration, Judicial Office scheduling requirements, GDPR for defendant and victim personal data, WCAG 2.1 AA (MoJ accessibility standard), and UK Government Secure classification (OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE) were the requirements. Budget: £85,000.
Our Approach
Judicial scheduling constraints
- judicial availability (sittings calendar per judge), case type allocation (Crown Court judge grade requirements — Resident Judge, High Court Judge, Recorder), estimated trial length (QC estimate), courtroom availability (12 courtrooms with different configurations), and listing priority (custody time limits — defendants in custody have statutory listing deadlines).
- Constraint satisfaction solver (Python Google OR-Tools): optimises listing schedule within all constraints.
CPS Common Platform API
- case file retrieval (defendant details, charge particulars, estimated trial length, prosecution evidence status), hearing result submission (conviction, acquittal, sentence), and adjournment recording.
- OFFICIAL-
SENSITIVE data handling
all case data classified OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE — encrypted at rest (AES-256), encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3), and access control (judicial staff only, MFA enforced).
Victim personal data
- OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE.
- Victim names not displayed in court listing public-facing view (victim anonymity — domestic abuse, sexual offences).
Defendant data
- OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE — listing staff see full defendant details, public court listings show anonymised case reference only (before verdict).
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) public task basis for criminal justice data processing.
ICO registration
- Crown Court data processing registered as law enforcement processing.
- WCAG 2.1
MoJ accessibility standard
- all government digital services must meet WCAG 2.1 AA.
- Judicial staff range includes older judges who may use assistive technologies.
NVDA screen reader testing for
case file viewing, listing creation, and courtroom allocation.
Keyboard navigation
complete listing management workflow completable without mouse.
High contrast mode
MoJ design system dark mode for court environment lighting.
The Results
Pilot live at 14 weeks, £78,000 — under budget.
GDS assessment: Beta pass.
Court listing time (per day): 4.2 hours → 1.4 hours automated.
Custody time limit breaches: zero in pilot period (2 breaches in prior comparable period — CTL breach = automatic bail).
WCAG 2.1 AA: zero non-compliances in Cabinet Office monitoring.
CPS Common Platform integration: 98.2% successful API calls (first attempt).
HMCTS leadership invited pilot expansion to 3 additional Crown Courts.
“Zero custody time limit breaches in the pilot. Two in the prior comparable period — each was a front-page story. The listing automation saved 2.8 hours per day per court. HMCTS leadership invited us to expand to 3 more Crown Courts. The OR-Tools constraint solver handling 12 simultaneous judicial and courtroom constraints was the technical breakthrough." — Programme Director, HMCTS Digital Supplier (name withheld)”
Project Details
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