It is part of a public consultation on the National Information Infrastructure (NII), a new initiative for improving government data.

The government is currently identifying which datasets should be included. For the MoJ, these include case management systems, language services information, custodial data and much more [listed below]. So far there is next to no feedback on these.

If you think these would be valuable open data sets, you need to create a data.gov.uk profile if you don’t already have one, and ‘add feedback’ under the dataset you’re interested in. You’ll be asked how opening the data will be beneficial to society/ the economy/public services etc. and to give some [public] comments.

That would probably also be the place to raise any concerns or suggestions about the way in which the data should be released.

Thanks to Max Froumentin at the MoJ for alerting me to this.

The unpublished datasets (listed alphabetically)

• CHASE: Database for tracking and monitoring ministerial correspondence
• CREST Case management system for Crown Court cases
• CasPER The Official Solicitor and Public Trustee Case Management System
• Care Monitoring System Case progression tool for monitoring care and supervision applications in family courts
• CaseMan Case management system for county court cases
• Client and cost management system (CCMS) Database holding details of Legal Aid work relating to: Civil Representation Means & Merits, Civil Representation Case Management including The Statutory Charge, Cash receipting, Client & Provider payments, Billing
• Controlled Work & Administration (CWA) Database holding details of Legal Aid work relating to: Contract & Schedule Maintenance, Provider Reference Data, Civil advice (non court) claims, Police Station advice claims, Magistrates Court claims
• Corporate Information Systems (CIS) Database holding details of Legal Aid work relating to: Civil Representation Means & Merits, Civil Representation Case Management including The Statutory Charge, Cash receipting, Client & Provider payments, Billing (Civil Rep, Mediation, Magistrates Court Non Standard Fees, High Cost Cases)
• Court Funds Office  records Current and historical details of client funds held in court
• Crown Court Remuneration (CCR) and Crown Court Litigator Fee (CCLF) Legal Aid billing system for Crown Court cases
• Crown Court Sentencing Survey Database Details of the factors affecting judge’s sentencing decisions at the Crown Court
• FamilyMan Case management system for family court cases.
• Forced Marriage Protection Orders Database of all Forced Marriage Protection Order cases in family courts
• Freedom of Information (FoI) requests database Case management system for FoI requests received by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
• Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service language services information system Requests for face-to-face language services completed under the national Language Services Framework Agreement (commencing on 30th January 2012), and complaints made, by Criminal Justice System partner (e.g. criminal courts, tribunals etc)
• Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) Performance Database Database of summary statistical information about all HMCTS cases.
• Independent Monitoring Board Appointments Files HR type information relating to appointment of IMB Members, eg Application forms, interview panel forms, security forms, Ministerial Submissions
• Independent Monitoring Board Conduct & Discipline Cases Complaints about IMB members by IMB Members, Staff, detainees or prisoners
• Independent Monitoring Board Database Database containing HR type information for 2000+ IMB current and former members
• Integrated Accredited Programmes System (IAPS) Operational database for the management of accredited programme requirements in all probation trusts
• JUROR Holds records of all potential jurors for Crown, Civil and Coroners Courts in England and Wales.
• Libra Case management system for magistrates’ court cases, including information on breaches
• Linked Data The linked data is developmental and is produced from linking existing administrative data sources together to create a new valuable information asset which is being used for a variety of purposes.
• Means Assessment & Administration Tool (MAAT) Database holding details of Legal Aid work relating to: Magistrates Means Assessment, Crown Court Means Assessment, Benefit Status Checking
• MoJ extract of Police National Computer Extract of selected fields from the Police National Computer (PNC).
• Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) Database Central system for storing data on MAPPA eligible offenders
• National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Deaths in Custody Database The central system for storing information relating to deaths in prison custody in England and Wales.
• National Offender Management Service incident reporting system The system for recording incidents in prison custody including self-harm and assaults.
• ORACLE HRMS HR Database containing the human resources records for public sector Prison Service and National Offender Management Service (NOMS) HQ staff.
• Offender Assessment System (OASys) Operational database used to assess the risks and needs of eligible offenders in prisons and probation trusts.
• Phoenix Database containing the human resources records for Ministry of Justice staff
• Police force Failure To Appear warrant information systems (various across the 43 police forces in England & Wales) Failure To Appear (FTA) warrants received, executed and outstanding, by category of warrant, in each police force area.
• Police force Penalty Notice for Disorder (PND) systems (various across the 43 police forces in England & Wales) Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs) issued and paid.
• Possession Claim Online Case management system for claims made through Possession Claim Online website
• Prison National Offender Management Information System (p-NOMIS) and Inmate Information System (IIS) Prison case management systems.
• Probation Trust Case Management Systems Probation supervision and court reports.
• Public Protection Unit Database (PPUD) Case management system for those offenders serving life sentences and indeterminate sentences of imprisonment for public protection, recalled offenders and offenders who are restricted patients.
• Secure Accommodation Clearing House System (SACHS) Monthly population data for the under-18 custodial population.
• Tribunals Service Case Management systems including: ARIA, ETHOS (and Caseflow), GAPs 2, MARTHA, CICA and a set of SQL and Access based systems, and manual case records. Case management systems holding information on appeals in Tribunals
• YJMIS Youth Offending Team data return
• eAsset Monthly population data for the under-18 custodial population
• i-grasp Database containing details of recruitment exercises
• nDelius Probation supervision and court reports.

“Unleashing the potential”

The Cabinet Office has published its white paper on open data.  Freedom of Information and Re-using Data is covered, which the Guardian summarises here on its Data Blog.

There are a few references to existing legal initiatives, including Legislation.gov.uk and a research project into anoymising reoffending data. The paper also discusses the legal and ethical framework for the release of open data more generally.

Lucy Series and I raised some issues regarding legal data in our submission to the ‘Making Open Data Real’ consultation last year. I’ll return to this issue in due course.

City University London working papers

The Centre for Law Justice and Journalism’s ‘Justice Wide Open’ working papers are now available to download from Scribd at this link. Or follow the links in this post on the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism blog.