Proposition 51K1645

Projet de loi instituant le système d'information Phenix.

General information ¶

Submitted by

PS | SP MR Open Vld Vooruit Purple Ⅰ

Submission date

March 7, 2005

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

protection of privacy database information system judicial power

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA MR

Abstained from voting

VB

Contact form ¶

Do you have a question or request regarding this proposition? Select the most appropriate option for your request and I will get back to you shortly.

⚠️ Possible data error ⚠️

This proposition could possibly include unrelated discussions due to a heuristic extraction bug in propositions prior to 2007. As soon as I've got time to fix it, these will be removed when they're not supposed to be here.

Discussion ¶

April 28, 2005 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Mr. Speaker, although I do not have your "great wisdom", I refer to this in my written report.

I refer to my written report.

This is a proof of great wisdom, Madame.

I suppose that mr. Perpeta, author of a supplementary report, will follow you. (Yes) I thank him for it.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to intervene in the Phenix dossier to draw attention to the parliament, this assembly, to the implications of the project which has been for a long time a kind of Arlesienne, a monster of Loch Ness, that is, a project that no one knows where it begins and where it will end.

Finally, we now have the possibility of having a defined project, tested in the coming days as part of the police courts, both in Turnhout and in Tournai, if I remember correctly. We finally have the possibility of having a seemingly effective operator to permanently carry out this Phenix project. Finally, we have a steering committee and a supervisory committee that will be able to quickly correct any errors made not only by the operator, but also by the management committee of the SPF Justice, in case of difficulties in adapting the project in the different jurisdictions.

I therefore think that we are on the right track, but we will continue to follow this project, Mr. Speaker, and in particular the financial resources allocated to it, with the hope that they will not result in a decrease in the resources allocated to the justice sector in general, in particular in matters of equipment, but also of men and women in charge of ending the country’s judicial backwardness.

The Phenix project was for a long time a project with head or tail to be found. We now finally have a well-defined project that will be tested in the coming days. We have found a suitable operator and have a steering committee and a supervisory body.

We are on the right track, but we will continue to follow this project closely, especially on the part of its financing which should not have a negative impact on the funds intended to remove the judicial downturn.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, colleagues, I think I need to intervene in this matter because, although the hour is somewhat advanced, I am convinced that this is an important draft. Only two of the three drafts should bring the whole into effect, but I think that the first moment when the legislator gives shape to Phenix should not simply go unnoticed.

The start-up for this modernization of our courts and courts was already given in 2001 by the then Minister of Justice, Mr. Verwilghen, who coincidentally replaces Minister Onkelinx tonight. Through (...) this Parliament is facing legislative work on this subject for the first time.

It is important to remember again what Phenix really means. In the 1990s, significant investments were made in computer science equipment of the judiciary. Unfortunately, this happened fragmented and decentralized. Different components and levels within the judiciary were successively equipped with different applications. In addition, the projects, due to a lack of information personnel, were outsourced to several external companies. The result was the well-known 13-headed monster, relying on a too weak network and with various compatibility problems. In some cases, the overtyping of an entire file for forwarding from first instance to appeal is an example.

The main goal of Phenix is to ⁇ a centralized and efficient information system. Other objectives and consequences include faster judicial processing, case management through the electronic file, facilitating the training and support of the office and prosecutor staff, better exchange of information with the external partners of Justice and a much stronger database on which policy can be drawn.

This is an important bill. The start of this modernization of courts and courts was given in 2001 by the former Minister of Justice, Mr. by Verwilghen. In the 1990s, we invested in the computer structure, but without any coordination. Different applications are currently used in the judicial system, hence compatibility issues. The power of the network also causes difficulties.

The Phénix project aims to establish a single centralized and efficient IT system, which should contribute to accelerate procedures, promote case management, facilitate staff training, improve the exchange of information with the partners of Justice and collect data on a rational basis.

This project is gigantic and a must relier 400 immovable buildings between them and the world outside. Il faut dès lors des serveurs centraux puissants It is indeed true that we have been waiting for concrete results for several years and Mr Courtois has pointed to this. I think it is necessary to put everything in the right perspective and that is why I referred to where we came from. It is a huge project. The basic infrastructure alone consists of a powerful network that connects all the four hundred buildings of Justice with a WAN and a LAN – a wireless and a local area network, including the cable – and connects Justice itself with the outside world, from powerful central servers, ten thousand PCs and terminals replaced in three years and a central helpdesk. In addition, there is also software, training and so on. Their

The Cross Point Bank for Enterprises is actually peanuts compared to Phenix. We all know how much time has been spent on getting the Cross Point Bank for Enterprises operational and what problems we have experienced with it.

The Chairman of the Court of Cassation, Mr. Verougstraete, who is also in the steering group, made the comparison with other countries, such as Switzerland and the Netherlands, and concluded that we are indeed making progress at a normal pace.

On the occasion of the discussion of this bill, we were also able to examine the cost of the project once more closely because there were quite a few misunderstandings and problems around it. I think that these problems can be reduced mainly to the difficult readability of the budget figures relating to computer science in recent years. It is indeed only since 2001 that one finds the budget ICT Judicial Order in the budget and it is only very recently that one also finds a separate post Phenix in the budget. Therefore, it is very difficult to see the concrete expenses. This has also been done in the course of our discussions by the administration. In the last two years, the share of the Phenix spending in the general ICT budget of the judiciary is almost one-fifth. In the years 2001 to 2003, the Phenix budget was actually quite limited because it was still in the study phase. Since 2001 until now, 16.7 million euros have been committed for Phenix. That is 3.3 million euros for this year. For 2005 this will be increased to 10 million euros. If you compare that with the entire budget of the FOD Justice, for 2005 1.36 billion euros, then I think that this amount should also be seen in the right perspective.

Of course, it is not these two bills, which determine the structure of Phenix, that are going to be of great importance to the jurisprudence. The following draft concerning the electronic process operation will be most clear to them.

I think this draft, which seeks to create a balanced organisation of Phenix, with a structure both in terms of privacy protection and in terms of the autonomy of the judiciary — we have been able to encounter a few small examples of this in the course of our discussions — is also very important.

De VLD is tevreden dat Phenix eindelijk op wetgevend vlak zichtbaar wordt in de komende maanden ook in de praktijk concreet zal worden. We are blij dat het project dat opgestart is in 2001 — in dat op dat along with thousands of computers and terminals and a central help desk. It is therefore perfectly normal that this large-scale operation takes a few years. The implementation of this project is ⁇ at a normal pace compared to other countries.

Regarding the cost of the project, there was a little confusion at the beginning. It is difficult to verify the amount of funds previously unlocked for IT, as it is only since 2001 that this post is explicitly mentioned in the budget. The Phénix project has recently been awarded a separate place in the budget. The share of Phoenix expenditure in the general ICT budget of the judicial order is 20 percent. Since 2001, 16.7 million euros have been invested in this project. The budget for 2005 amounts to 10 million euros, which is small in relation to the total amount discharged for the SPF Justice.

The e-procedure project will be more important for legal practitioners.

The VLD is looking forward to the future development of the Phénix project. We hope that everyone will support the project. We have not yet experienced too many problems, so by 2008, our courts will be fully computerized. by

This moment was a revolutionary step for the Belgian justice system – carried by everyone and will continue to be carried by everyone.

The cost, the growth pains, the delays and the technical problems are inherent to such a large project. So far, there have been no excessive problems and we expect that by 2008 our courts will be able to work fully informed. If we compare that type of project with projects that also have to be carried out by large companies in order to realize some IT applications, then I think it is still within the line of what such a project should be.