Wendy Williams introduces CPS North East

In a short video, Wendy Williams gives some background and explains the work of the Area

This video is also available in QuickTime format: Wendy Williams CCP video (.mov, approx 16mb) (Opens in new window)

Text transcript of the video

Hello, I'm Wendy Williams, and I'm the Chief Crown Prosecutor of CPS North East, which serves the communities of Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria. The North East Area has a population of just over two-and-a-half million, and it's an area of contrast, inasmuch as two thirds are rural, but there are also long-established industrialised and urban areas. It's therefore unsurprising that we deal with the range of offences, from the most minor traffic cases to serious and organised crime.

At CPS North East, we have set ourselves four key priorities which are: to make the successful transition to a single Area; to demonstrate value for money in our work; to maintain our commitment to serious and organised crime; and that quality will underpin everything that we do.

Last year, we prosecuted over 80,000 cases in the magistrates' court and just over 8,000 cases at the Crown Court. Our vision at CPS North East is that we are committed to delivering justice for victims and the communities that we serve. I consider it important that our communities in the North East have access to justice and that we are fair and open in everything that we do.

I consider it important that we are accountable to the public for what we do, and so in CPS North East, we have a Community Involvement Panel, which consists of representatives of local interest groups from Durham, Cleveland and Northumbria, and they scrutinise our work and provide us with feedback, which has been extremely helpful.

And so I would invite you to have a look at our website to find out more about us and what we do and if you would like to provide us with feedback, I would be very happy to receive it.