Day 164 - 26 Sep 95 - Page 24
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you know when the computer program came
2 in?
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: No, I do not, but if it is important I will
5 certainly find that out. I should imagine it is fairly
6 recent but I really do not know.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
9
10 MR. RAMPTON: We can certainly find that out.
11
12 MS. STEEL: Obviously, if that document that Mr. Rampton has
13 just referred to is what he says, then we would expect that
14 to be disclosed. But, in addition to that, we believe that
15 the program should be disclosed. If Mr. Rampton is not
16 happy about printing it out, we are quite happy to accept a
17 disk ---
18
19 MR. RAMPTON: No, we will not do that unless ordered.
20
21 MS. STEEL: -- which I believe is disclosable. I believe that
22 disk are disclosable under the relevant order -- I cannot
23 remember which order it is -- about discovery.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You had better refer me to it.
26
27 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, again I can save your Lordship time. In
28 principle, computer databases constitute documents for the
29 purpose of discovery.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The database, yes, but, as I understand it,
32 you say if we go to the computer now it has got the
33 scheduling for the existing week and the previous week.
34
35 MR. RAMPTON: That is right for the whole country.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The program itself is, presumably, that which
38 once you put in certain information actually makes the
39 schedule.
40
41 MR. RAMPTON: It is the thing that activates the computer to
42 disgorge the information, or it makes the schedule, yes.
43 There are two.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I assumed that you key in information of one
46 kind or another and what it will do, presumably, throws up
47 on the screen and prints if you require, is a schedule.
48 The program itself does all the hard work between someone
49 keying in the information and the end result which is the
50 schedule itself.
51
52 MR. RAMPTON: That, I think, is -----
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So instead of having lists of people and all
55 sorts of scribbly permutations, the computer does it for
56 you. Is that your understanding?
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: That is right. That is my understanding, my Lord,
59 and I do not believe in that sense -- it is a confusion
60 between two uses of the word "program" -- the program is
