What is Make a PleaIt’s a public facing digital service which enables defendants to respond online to police prosecutions. Defendants involved in summary non-imprisonable motoring offences such as speeding and having no insurance, can enter their plea online. This results in their case dealt with by a single magistrate under the Single Justice Procedure (SJP).
It’s one of a number of new digital services being delivered by The Criminal Justice System Common Platform Programme, an IT-enabled business change programme. The programme will provide user focused digital services, unifying and transforming the Criminal Justice System; enhancing the criminal justice experience for all users.
Although the option of a paper submission is still available for those who prefer it, using online service from the comfort of a personal space and device is now becoming increasingly popular with public users.Customers who plead online also receive an early notification of their sentence where a financial imposition has been imposed by the court. The notification provides details on how to pay and local enforcement information, to assist in paying fines. At this stage, the notification does not replace the fine notice which is currently produced.
Roll-out and digital uptakeNational rollout is now complete and digital uptake is on the increase.
As of 17 August 2017, magistrates’ courts have already handled more than 52,500 online pleas, with a forecast of 84,000 online pleas by the end of 2017. This is an increase from 58,981 online pleas made in 2016 and 11,898 in 2015.
Lessons learned and planned enhancementsSo, what have I learnt about a live digital product? The Online Plea service has a built-in evaluation element, which means users can give feedback after they’ve used the service – and often they do. This is fantastic for me as I have live, up to date, useful insight that is used to improve the service. I review these comments regularly and plan user-led enhancements.
For example, some of the wording in the service has caused confusion with some users, so we have made changes to make it more user-friendly. By reviewing the layout of some of the screens, we’ve also changed and order of some of the questions.
We also get feedback from HMCTS staff and legal teams, this has been invaluable. They found that the way the service worded the question ‘Do you want to come to court to plead guilty?’ was confusing. Customers would pick this option but didn’t really want a court hearing. So we’ve done some redesigning work and are currently testing out some new screens.
This is the great thing about agile working and control our own digital products – if they don’t quite fit or something needs changing, we can review and offer suggestions for change quickly and easily We are no longer ‘stuck’ with a system that we have to work with, we make our service work for us and our customers, which makes for a much simpler customer journey.Go to the Governments website by clicking HERE to find out more.
It’s one of a number of new digital services being delivered by The Criminal Justice System Common Platform Programme, an IT-enabled business change programme. The programme will provide user focused digital services, unifying and transforming the Criminal Justice System; enhancing the criminal justice experience for all users.
Although the option of a paper submission is still available for those who prefer it, using online service from the comfort of a personal space and device is now becoming increasingly popular with public users.Customers who plead online also receive an early notification of their sentence where a financial imposition has been imposed by the court. The notification provides details on how to pay and local enforcement information, to assist in paying fines. At this stage, the notification does not replace the fine notice which is currently produced.
Roll-out and digital uptakeNational rollout is now complete and digital uptake is on the increase.
As of 17 August 2017, magistrates’ courts have already handled more than 52,500 online pleas, with a forecast of 84,000 online pleas by the end of 2017. This is an increase from 58,981 online pleas made in 2016 and 11,898 in 2015.
Lessons learned and planned enhancementsSo, what have I learnt about a live digital product? The Online Plea service has a built-in evaluation element, which means users can give feedback after they’ve used the service – and often they do. This is fantastic for me as I have live, up to date, useful insight that is used to improve the service. I review these comments regularly and plan user-led enhancements.
For example, some of the wording in the service has caused confusion with some users, so we have made changes to make it more user-friendly. By reviewing the layout of some of the screens, we’ve also changed and order of some of the questions.
We also get feedback from HMCTS staff and legal teams, this has been invaluable. They found that the way the service worded the question ‘Do you want to come to court to plead guilty?’ was confusing. Customers would pick this option but didn’t really want a court hearing. So we’ve done some redesigning work and are currently testing out some new screens.
This is the great thing about agile working and control our own digital products – if they don’t quite fit or something needs changing, we can review and offer suggestions for change quickly and easily We are no longer ‘stuck’ with a system that we have to work with, we make our service work for us and our customers, which makes for a much simpler customer journey.Go to the Governments website by clicking HERE to find out more.
