Magistrates secure access to credit reference database

Magistrates across England and Wales will soon have unprecedented access to a database to help them track down hard-to-find offenders who have defaulted on court penalties.

When people move on, Magistrates Courts Committees (MCCs) currently have no means to track them. That is now changing, as the Department for Constitutional Affairs has just signed a one-year contract with credit reference agency Equifax plc to provide all 42 Magistrates Courts Committees (MCCs) with access to its electronic data.

Court penalties can include financial penalties (including confiscation orders), community rehabilitation orders, community punishment orders and suspended sentence supervision orders.

The partnership will enable magistrates' courts' staff to instantly check the latest whereabouts of offenders who are wilfully defaulting and have changed address without notifying the courts.

Courts Minister Christopher Leslie said that a major barrier for magistrates to effective enforcement of court-imposed penalties is the lack of intelligence about offenders' whereabouts: "That is changing and magistrates' courts are about to have access to a wide range of important intelligence which is not available through any other source.

"This means that offenders who refuse to comply with their penalty and have either moved, changed their name or telephone number, can be traced much more quickly and easily.

"It is a significant additional tool in magistrates' enforcement armoury which re-enforces our commitment to bringing offenders to justice and improve the level of confidence in the criminal justice system.

"It shows that we are serious about pursuing those who flout an order of the courts. It is what the public want and expect and it is what we are delivering."

It is anticipated that dedicated courts' staff will make up to 1.5 million enquiries in total each year. It is expected that the system will operate from October to allow specially selected staff to be trained to use the system.

Sir Ron De Witt, Chief Executive of Her Majesty's Courts Service, said that this latest enforcement initiative shows how magistrates' courts are working with the private sector to make the criminal justice system more effective: "One of the major advantages of this project is that we don't have to re-invent the wheel. Magistrates' courts can tap into an existing resource, making it a cost-effective way of tracing offenders as well as being more efficient.

"More than 95 per cent of criminal cases begin and end in magistrates' courts. Consequently, it is vital that we give them all the resources and support they need to do their job properly.

"Experience shows that when you give courts greater access to information that can help them trace criminals, they do succeed in bringing more offenders to justice than they would otherwise."

(GB)