Reflections on the Futurescot Digital Justice & Policing 2026 Conference
I recently joined colleagues at the Futurescot Digital Justice & Policing 2026 conference at the University of Strathclyde’s Technology & Innovation Centre in Glasgow.
Storm ID was delighted to sponsor the event and have a stand, giving us the opportunity to catch up with familiar faces, including our colleagues from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and the Scottish Government Justice Directorate Team, as well as meet new contacts. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to speak with us.
The day offered plenty to reflect on, particularly how digital, data and AI can help justice organisations improve services while maintaining the confidence of the people who deliver and use them.
Connecting services through partnership
The programme for the day explored the connections between policing, prosecution, courts, custody and victim support. Improving how information moves between these organisations has implications for everyone's experience of the justice system, from frontline staff to victims and witnesses.
For me, that makes events like this particularly valuable. Bringing people together creates space to understand the pressures partners face and consider where working together could make a difference.
Technology has an important role, but successful delivery also depends on relationships. Service teams need opportunities to share their knowledge, agree priorities and shape changes around the people who will use them. Those conversations are an essential part of building better services.
Paul's masterclass on a new model for modernisation
A particular highlight was our co-founder and Chair Paul McGinness's masterclass, A New Model for Justice System Modernisation.
Paul began by considering how AI could change the demands placed on justice organisations. As people find it easier to prepare complaints, appeals and other written submissions, services may need to handle greater volumes of increasingly sophisticated correspondence.
He then explored how AI can help organisations respond, including by tackling the legacy systems that constrain their ability to change. Where information sits in disconnected applications and staff repeatedly enter the same details, improving the underlying systems becomes central to improving the service.
Paul outlined an approach that uses AI to uncover business rules and data flows hidden in code, spreadsheets and documentation. Service experts check those findings, helping teams establish which rules remain valid and where the service should change. Validated requirements then guide prototyping, engineering and testing, with human approval throughout.
A case study from a UK central government department made the approach tangible. An ageing application supported an important business process, but its logic was buried in formulas understood by very few people. Manual handling added work, while security concerns increased the need for change.
My colleagues at Storm ID recorded effort by task type against a conventional discovery and alpha baseline. The engagement achieved an overall reduction of 30 to 45%, with particularly strong gains in building and prototyping. Testing effort remained unchanged by design. Paul also explained the conditions that affect those results, including access to source material, integration complexity and the availability of client experts to review findings.
The assurance behind the work was equally important. Architecture approval came before analysis began. People reviewed sanitised source material before transfer, and automated checks, security controls and named reviewers governed delivery.
That combination gives organisations a clearer basis for deciding what they can modernise, how to proceed and how to demonstrate that the replacement meets the required standard.
Sharing Breaking the Legacy Trap
At our stand, and building on what Paul shared, we also shared our new research, Breaking the Legacy Trap: How AI changes the economics of modernising Scotland's public services.
The paper examines a familiar cycle: ageing systems absorb increasing maintenance effort, leaving less funding and capacity to replace them. Modernisation is deferred, and the burden continues to grow.
Drawing on our own delivery experience and modelling, the research explores how AI-assisted analysis and engineering can reduce replacement effort and bring the payback from modernisation forward. It also proposes a practical route for Scotland's public sector: identify suitable systems, begin with a focused first wave and measure the results before scaling.
It was encouraging to see interest from some of the attendees who visited our stand. Sharing the research gave us another opportunity to discuss the possibilities for legacy modernisation and how organisations might assess them in their own context.
For me, its value lies in helping public service leaders revisit decisions about systems that have previously seemed too difficult or expensive to replace.
Taking the next step with Storm ID
Our legacy modernisation offering helps organisations investigate that opportunity, beginning with a clear understanding of what an existing system does and what the service needs next.
We combine AI-assisted discovery with service design and engineering, supported by evidence that clients can review and trace. Service owners validate findings, teams test requirements, and people remain accountable for decisions throughout delivery.
A useful starting point is one system. Understanding its rules, dependencies and operating costs can establish what replacement would involve and where the benefits could come from.
If legacy technology is holding back your organisation's plans, we'd welcome a conversation about how Storm ID can help you assess the options and build a practical route forward.
See you at Digital Scotland
We're looking forward to continuing these conversations at Digital Scotland at the EICC in Edinburgh on 24 November.
If you're attending, do pop by to say hello. We'd love to catch up and hear what you're working on.