5. The Committee has been aware for some time that the Department is experiencing considerable challenges concerning document management in some courts. There have been various reports of chaotic conditions at High Courts countrywide and that files have gone missing. Many of our courts no longer have storage space and, as the Committee learnt on a recent oversight visit, the problem is exacerbated as the National Archives is unable to accommodate all archived case files. The Department instituted a five-year document management project to address the problem. The Department reports now that the off-site document storage project has been deployed in seven courts. The project has been implemented extremely successfully in the Western Cape: when the project is rolled out elsewhere, it will be used as 'best practice'. The Committee welcomes the invitation for it to visit the project and will contact the Department soon in order to make the necessary arrangements for the next quarter. The Committee notes, however, the recent judgement in the Western Cape High Court on this point. It asked the Department to provide it with a report on how it intended to address the problem of missing files countrywide. The Committee has received the information requested, and will consider it as soon as its programme allows.