New funding totalling £23 million has been allocated to the Department for Justice (DoJ) to progress system reforms.

£20.45m has been allocated to help speed up and transform the criminal justice system and £2.19m has been allocated to an electronic monitoring project.

Welcoming the funding, Justice Minister, Naomi Long, said: "Tackling delay is a key priority for me and this additional funding will go some way to reducing avoidable delay across the justice system. The speeding up and transforming the criminal justice proposal aims to change the model of delivery for criminal justice, reducing delay and maximising efficiencies.

"Ensuring cases are dealt with appropriately and proportionately, gives a clear public message that crime is dealt with quickly and effectively. Speeding up justice and reducing delays puts the victims and witnesses at the heart of the justice system, giving them swift resolutions and reducing the angst that inevitably comes with prolonged cases. Swift justice should also act as a deterrent to those who seek to engage in crime and will ultimately contribute to safer communities."

Partners across the justice system, including PPS and PSNI, have already prioritised a programme of work to reduce delay and the new funding will enable essential work to be progressed to reduce demand on the justice system. The £20.4m across five years will enable essential work to be progressed in two areas-

• Early Engagement (working with PSNI, prosecution and defence to maximise early engagement, promoting effective case progression and earlier resolution of cases proceeding through the formal court system); and

• Out of Court Disposals – building on existing work to date to reduce demand on the system through the use of non-court outcomes, this work will continue to develop mechanisms to look at how a greater number of lower-level cases could be dealt with more appropriately and efficiently outside of the formal court system.

On electronic monitoring, the Minister said: "The additional funding of £2.19m for electronic tagging will allow my department to transform the way in which it monitors individuals released into the community. Aspects under consideration include the implementation of a GPS location monitoring for those on bail or on licence fitted with an electronic tag (as part of their release conditions). This enhanced monitoring could be used to strengthen bail conditions, probation orders, or prison release conditions and will provide accurate real-time monitoring of offenders."

GPS technology is already in use across England and Wales with plans under development in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland to consider the implementation of GPS monitoring in electronic tagging. Internationally, GPS/location monitoring is a well-established practice in North America, South America, Europe and Australia.