CPS prosecutors to make World Cup debut

09/03/2006

Crown Prosecution Service lawyers will work alongside British police in a foreign country for the first time at this summer's football World Cup in Germany. CPS prosecutors will make sure any English trouble makers will face banning orders when they return home.

Chief Crown Prosecutor for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and CPS lead on football issues, Nick Hawkins, said: "The CPS will work closely with police and German prosecutors to collect good quality evidence to build good quality cases.

"We will use evidence collected in Germany to make sure any English fans who cause trouble there will receive a football banning order when they return home.

"This initiative solves the legal complications which prevented action being taken against trouble makers returning from previous tournaments abroad.

"I am very impressed with all the hard work England fans are putting in to set a party tone for the tournament and that itself is the biggest deterrent to any trouble. But we can help them set that tone by promising to robustly deal with any few individuals who may set out to spoil that party."

A team of four prosecutors will accompany British police to the World Cup in Germany in June. They will work with the British police as well as German police and prosecutors in order to build packages of evidence that can be used in English courts.

The information will be sent back to a network of CPS specialist prosecutors in England and Wales. A change in legislation, under the Violent Crime Reduction Bill currently before Parliament, will allow those specialist prosecutors to use the packages of evidence to apply for Football Banning Orders in English courts.

When the suspects return to Britain, they will be arrested and find themselves in court facing a CPS specialist prosecutor using the evidence from Germany to apply for a Football Banning Order. Proposals in the Violent Crime Reduction Bill will increase the maximum length of these banning orders from three years to five years and also give prosecutors the facility to appeal any decisions by magistrates to refuse their applications.

Even if the suspects avoid arrest at entry ports, the police and CPS in their home areas will now be able to arrest them and ban them from football after they have returned home.

Notes to Editors

1. The proposed Violent Crime Reduction Bill will allow the CPS to have a greater role in dealing with football disorder.
2. The CPS is currently only able to apply for a Football Banning Order (FBO) if a person has been convicted of football related violence. However the new Bill will enable the Director of Public Prosecutions to authorise Crown Prosecutors to make an application for a banning order on complaint, ie. without a criminal conviction. The primary aim here is to ensure that Crown Prosecutors with specialist knowledge of football disorder legislation and the judicial process in a host country can present applications in circumstances where the evidence of misbehaviour has been gathered overseas. At present, the court will not always have at its disposal clarification on overseas judicial and administrative processes that are relevant to an application.
3. The Bill will empower courts to impose bail conditions stopping individuals attending matches or travelling to tournaments abroad when an application for an FBO on complaint (ie. without a conviction) is adjourned.
4. The Bill will give the CPS the right of appeal if a court fails or declines to impose a banning order (either following a conviction or on complaint).
5. The Bill makes provision for the period of a banning order made on complaint to be between three and five years, rather than between two to three years. Increasing the minimum period to three years is designed to ensure that the subject is banned for the next football championships (ie. two year cycle of European and World Cup finals).
6. For further details, please contact CPS Press Office on 020 7796 8105.