‘Strong foundations now in place for CPS London’

23/02/2012

London's Chief Crown Prosecutor Alison Saunders has welcomed the latest inspection of CPS London after Inspectors recognised the substantial progress being made to improve performance.

The latest report from Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) shows that CPS London has made significant strides in improving its performance and that the overall direction of travel is positive. The preceding report in March 2010 noted a number of shortcomings.

Chief Crown Prosecutor Alison Saunders said:

"A huge amount of hard work has been put in to improve the service we provide to Londoners. This latest report tallies with our own assessment of CPS London, which is that major changes have been made, and the much needed improvement is now being delivered. It acknowledges that we have put strong foundations in place to build upon in the coming months, and that is what I intend to do.

"In 2010 we were issued with fourteen recommendations for improvement and all have shown improvement, where they are still relevant. We have fully achieved eight, made substantial progress in three and two are no longer applicable.

"We have moved as many staff as possible to frontline roles, improved our case management systems and have reviewed all our flexible working arrangements to ensure that the business need is always being met.

"There are still important aspects regarding our casework preparation and management of performance which we need to improve and I will ensure that over the coming months and years CPS London will do exactly that.

"In the next few months we will move our staff to three operational sites. This will provide a further opportunity for us to look at our structure in order to increase resource resilience and flexibility and drive performance improvements. I am confident that this will help us to drive up our conviction rates providing the best service we can to Londoners."