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Magistrates Courts: Welsh Language

Volume 487: debated on Thursday 29 January 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2009, Official Report, column 1126W, on magistrates courts: Welsh language, what the (a) estimated cost, (b) expected completion date and (c) start date for the bilingual version of the Libra IT system is; and if he will make a statement; (251178)

(2) pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2009, Official Report, column 1126W, on magistrates courts: Welsh language, how much his Department has spent (a) in total and (b) in each month on translating summonses into Welsh since the Libra IT system became operational; and if he will make a statement;

(3) pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2009, Official Report, column 1126W, on magistrates courts: Welsh language, how many requests there have been for summonses to be translated into Welsh (a) in total and (b) each month since the Libra IT system became operational, broken down by the smallest geographical area for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement;

(4) what the (a) estimated (i) cost and (ii) completion date at the project outset, (b) outturn cost and (c) completion date of the Libra IT system was; and if he will make a statement.

The estimated cost of the Libra bilingual solution is £4 million. Final contractual papers are yet to be signed so precise figures are not available at this point. This figure represents application development costs and does not include support costs which are on-going for the life of the application.

The expected completion and start date for the bilingual version of the Libra IT system is September 2009.

Since the Libra IT system became operational, the Department has spent £425 in total on translating summonses into Welsh. Of this, £80 was spent in August 2008; £165 in December 2008 and £180 in January 2009.

Since the Libra IT system became operational, there have been 21 requests in total for summonses to be translated into Welsh. The following table shows a breakdown of monthly requests by the smallest geographical area.

At the project outset (in December 1998), the Libra IT system was

(i) estimated to (i) cost £184 million and (ii) to complete rollout in July 2001;

(ii) The outturn cost of the project is £444 million;

(iii) The date of completion of rollout was 9 December 2008.

Cost of translation of Libra documents into Welsh

Month

Cost (£)

August 2008

80.00

December 2008

165.00

January 2009

180.00

Total

425.00

Number of requests by smallest geographical area

Requests

Mid and West Wales

North Wales

South Wales

August 2008

1

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

December 2008

4

4

January 2009

5

6

1

Total

9

10

2