The tech-powered future of justice and public safety
For over 20 years, CGI has been at the forefront of helping the UK Justice system to adopt new technology and employ modern ways of working, writes Michelle Sherrard, Director of Consulting Services, Northern Ireland.
The company has played a key role in modernising global criminal justice systems across the UK and further afield by providing governments and law enforcement agencies with innovative technology solutions that enhance operational effectiveness, transparency, and build public trust.
Closer to home, work has also commenced on the new Themis Programme for the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS). This 20-year contract, valued at £85 million underscores CGI’s pivotal role in modernising the justice system, enhancing efficiency, and improving access to justice services across Northern Ireland.
The Themis Programme represents a significant step forward in the NICTS’s Service Modernisation Programme. By redesigning court processes around the stakeholder, Themis will transform services and administrative processes across tribunals, civil, family, and criminal business areas. This ambitious transformation aims to deliver a digital-first, paper-light environment that will facilitate greater transparency, faster case delivery, and increased accessibility through virtual services.
This latest contract builds on CGI’s specialism within the justice sector which sees its technology deeply embedded across multiple facets of the UK’s justice sector. This includes the development of digital court systems, integrated justice platforms, and e-filing solutions that optimise processes and address case backlogs. Additionally, CGI’s platforms facilitate cross-border data sharing for transnational crime prevention, use AI to automate case management, and enhance community engagement through mobile apps and online portals.
CGI also supports predictive analytics for policing, ensuring secure digital evidence management, and enhancing cybersecurity to combat cybercrime. Through these innovations, CGI plays a vital role in shaping a modern and efficient justice system that is responsive to changing societal needs.
This extensive experience enables CGI to help public safety and law enforcement agencies join the dots, enabling more effective crime prevention, safeguarding and investigative activity. CGI enhances its clients’ ability to transform data into actionable intelligence, and facilitates secure information sharing across local, national and international levels. Key projects that demonstrate the transformative solutions we are delivering include:
UK Police National Database: Sharing intelligence efficiently
CGI has designed, built and currently operates the Police National Database (PND), serving all UK police forces with 4.3 billion records. Every month, circa 7,000 users from 55 organisations complete approximately 850,000 searches.
The PND is a national information management system that improves the ability of the police service to manage and share intelligence and other operational information, to prevent and detect crime and make communities safer.
The Police National Database is a story of continual evolution. Designed, built and operated by CGI, the Police National Database has progressively expanded its functionality to keep pace with technological progress and the changing nature of crime and threats to the public.
CGI developed a comprehensive database which enables forces to rapidly access and search on people, objects, locations and events (POLE) in a secure way. PND provides a complex picture of intelligence held across the UK; rapid access to a ‘picture’ that would have previously taken weeks to produce; improved data quality and accuracy; and all of this intelligence being available in real time.
National Crime Agency: Intelligent automation solutions
CGI partnered with the National Crime Agency’s International Crime Bureau (UKICB) to implement an intelligent automation (IA) solution, which significantly improved the processing of INTERPOL circulations, which are international requests for cooperation or alerts.
Traditionally the processing of INTERPOL circulations was extremely resource-intensive and diverted staff from other core business functions. Since 2018, the UKICB has used CGI IA to process them, allowing case preparation and management activities to be completed 79 per cent faster than with human workers, saving 28,000 hours of manual processing and an average full-time equivalent (FTE) saving of 20 officers.
This automation enables NCA officers to focus more on intelligence gathering and decision-making while maintaining control over automated processes and adapting the workforce according to incoming demand. It also provides a visual overview of workflows, highlights bottlenecks for improved efficiency, and allows for the reassignment of virtual workers to clear backlogs in hours rather than days.
The next phases of IA will further increase savings to significantly reduce workloads and enable better risk management of higher volumes of requests.
Domestic abuse: Joining the Dots
Victims of domestic abuse are among the most vulnerable groups served by the justice system, making it essential that they can trust in systems designed to protect and support them. This is particularly relevant here in Northern Ireland, as the Executive Office has recently launched its Strategic Framework and Delivery Plan to End Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG), highlighting the need for a co-ordinated approach.
Drawing on its extensive experience and specialist expertise, CGI helps connect the dots across public safety and criminal justice agencies, transforming fragmented data into actionable intelligence to enhance victim support and system efficiency.
This is demonstrated through its advocacy for improved support for domestic abuse victims. In partnership with Crest Advisory, (a UK-based consultancy and research firm that specialises in criminal justice, policing, and public safety) CGI has conducted research to identify effective strategies to address the challenges of tackling domestic abuse across the justice system and beyond. They produced a white paper called Joining the Dots: domestic abuse, civil and criminal justice and technology, which calls for a more integrated approach between the civil and criminal justice systems to enhance the safety and well-being of victims.
By sharing best practices and harnessing technology, CGI aims to better protect vulnerable people and prevent domestic abuse now, while also exploring future opportunities for innovative solutions that may help prevent further incidents of abuse.
Transforming Bavaria’s justice system
CGI’s experience in justice systems extends beyond the UK. The Bavarian State Ministry of Justice partnered with CGI in a €250 million, six-year programme to modernise its IT infrastructure, aiming to enhance efficiency and improve access to justice. As part of this effort, CGI now manages two data centres – one in Munich and another in Nuremberg – and approximately 220 locations across Bavaria with 16,500 workstations.
Work on this new engagement began at the start of 2021, with CGI assuming responsibility for the ministry’s IT operational services, which include domain, infrastructure, user support, unified communications, media technology, and project and consulting services for Bavarian courts and public prosecutors’ offices.
CGI thus helps to create faster and more reliable public services while promoting a more accessible, innovative justice system.
‘Global Experience, Local Delivery’
Being the strategic delivery partner with the Home Office and various justice agencies across the UK allows us to have a greater and more meaningful impact in helping keep UK citizens safe and the country secure.
CGI’s ‘Global Experience, Local Delivery’ approach brings together decades of expertise in justice systems from around the world and then tailors it to meet the unique needs of local jurisdictions. By leveraging a global network of skilled professionals and advanced technologies, CGI ensures that justice services are modernised, efficient, and accessible. Our deep understanding of diverse legal frameworks, combined with local delivery teams, such as that in our Centre of Excellence in Belfast, enables CGI to deliver impactful solutions that drive innovation and improve service delivery at the regional level. We are looking forward to continuing to leverage that expertise for the benefit of people here in Northern Ireland.
For further information on CGI’s work in Northern Ireland visit https://www.cgi.com/uk/en-gb/cgi-in-northern-ireland
