Evaluating the Case Progression Officer Role in Reducing Avoidable Delay

Overview

The Case Progression Officer (CPO) role was introduced within NICTS in April 2019 following the Northern Ireland Audit Office’s (NIAO) report on avoidable delay. The report recommended that “The Department, in consultation with the Lord Chief Justice, should ensure that adequate administrative support is provided to the judiciary to facilitate more effective case management of cases and case progression in the Crown Court”

An internal evaluation of the CPO role was conducted in March 2023, resulting in a several recommendations – including an independent follow-up review in 2025 to assess the contribution the role is having in the context of better case management and the wider speeding up justice objective.

This questionnaire forms part of that follow-up evaluation and is carried out by Statisticians seconded from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) to NICTS.  NISRA statisticians provide independent advice, analysis and data to support the design, implementation and evaluation of policy.

We are seeking your views (as stakeholders who work with CPOs), on how the CPO role is contributing to the reduction of avoidable delay, what aspects are working well, and where improvements may be needed.  Your feedback is vital in helping us understand the impact of the role and shape its future development

We encourage you to respond openly and honestly.  All responses are confidential and will not be attributed to individuals in any report and will be used solely for the purposes of this evaluation. The questionnaire should take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete.

Thank you for your time and valuable input.