Crown Prosecution Service Race Equality Scheme Report on Year One 2002 - 2003

SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION

Under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, public bodies – including The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have to prepare, publish and deliver a Race Equality Scheme (RES). The aim of the RES is to set out what steps The CPS will take to make sure its policies, service delivery and employment systems tackle institutional racism by eliminating unlawful racial discrimination; promoting equality of opportunity; and promoting good race relations between people of different racial groups.

The main features of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 are that it imposes a 'general duty' on public bodies to promote race equality. Public bodies had to publish a RES by 31 May 2002. This report is an update on The Crown Prosecution Service Race Equality Scheme - Meeting the needs of diverse communities and improving prosecutions published in May 2002.

A RES is the action plan that sets out how public bodies will meet the duty. This action plan must be reviewed within three years. The CPS has decided to review and publish its RES annually. A public service's 'functions and policies' — that is, what it does and how it does it - should be assessed for 'relevance' to the duty to promote race equality. A summary of The CPS functions and policies reviewed in Year One, and to be reviewed in years two and three is in Appendix 1.

This report presents an overview of the work that has been carried out in the first year in order for The CPS to meet its statutory requirements under the RES. The RES update should not be seen in isolation, but against a backdrop of a number of other initiatives in the area of race equality. Many of which are 'signposted' in this document.

The CPS — who we are

The CPS is the main prosecuting authority in England and Wales. It was set up in 1986 and is a department of central government. It acts independently from the Government in accordance with statute. The Head of The CPS is the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), who has overall responsibility for The CPS and its prosecutions. A Chief Executive, who is responsible for the administration of The CPS, assists the DPP. The Attorney General, who is accountable to Parliament, superintends the DPP.

The CPS is organised into 42 Areas, which mirror the 42 police authority boundaries. A Chief Crown Prosecutor (CCP), who is responsible for delivering a high quality prosecution service to their local communities, heads each CPS Area. Chief Crown Prosecutors are supported by Area Business Managers, who are responsible for the general administration of the Area. The CPS also has headquarter offices in London, York and Birmingham. These deal with Finances, Human Resources, Policy, Special Casework, Equality and Diversity, Communications and other national issues.

The role of The CPS is to prosecute cases firmly, fairly and effectively when there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and when it is in the public interest to do so.

SECTION 2: THE CPS RACE EQUALITY SCHEME

This is a corporate Race Equality Scheme (RES) that applies to the functions and policies developed by The CPS. The impact assessment form that was produced was in consultation with the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) Appendix 2. The Equality and Diversity Unit (EDU) has overseen the day-to-day delivery of the scheme, which has been reviewed on a regular basis by the Senior Managers Advisory Group on Diversity (SMAGD). The CPS Board has assessed progress annually.

SMAGD has supported Areas and HQ Directorates in carrying out their impact assessments. As a result the RES update and impact assessments that we have had back have been from a national perspective. We still need to have information of the impact of policies at Area level. However the vast majority of CPS policies are national and responsibilities for monitoring delivery of the RES rests nationally. Where Areas have local 'policies', the responsibility rests with the Chief Crown Prosecutors (CCP). When policies are developed locally, CPS Areas will follow the spirit and principles of the national scheme and consider, where appropriate, the impact of their local policies with the assistance of local communities.

The CPS Inspectorate (HMCPSI) inspects how The CPS reviews its cases, including checking that equality and diversity is an integral part of the review process. The Inspectorate had completed a Thematic Review of Casework having a Minority Ethnic Dimension after the RES was published. Recommendations from the thematic review were added to the scheme where appropriate.

COMPASS is the new electronic case management system that will be used by The CPS. It is anticipated that COMPASS will monitor defendant, victim and witnesses ethnicity, as well as their gender, age and disability. It is intended that COMPASS will go 'live' in 2004 and be available nationwide by 2005. COMPASS will facilitate the monitoring of all our policies. This however is dependant on the information received from other parts of the criminal justice system particularly the police. (Further information is provided in section 3 under Information Technology point 3.7).

Given that COMPASS will not go live until 2005, The CPS commissioned the Diversity Monitoring Project (DMP). This is an independent piece of research to determine whether there is any bias in decision-making by The CPS at each stage of the decision-making process (charge, bail, mode of trial, failed cases, discontinuance, plea and plea bargaining). The DMP reviewed nearly 13,000 CPS files nationwide manually. The files were taken from 10 CPS Areas. The main purpose of the exercise is that it provides an equality impact assessment on how the service provides advice, reviews cases, makes decisions and prosecutes defendants.

Where the DMP shows that there is disproportionality there will be an analysis of what needs to be addressed. The study has monitored defendants in respect of race and gender; there has been consultation through the External Reference Group (a group made up of officers from other Government Departments and criminal justice agencies) and an internal steering group – the Critical Friends' Group (a group made up of CPS Officers and representatives from staff networks). It will be publicly available in the autumn of 2003. It will be monitored in the RES for year 2 and 3. In addition, it will be ensured that the DMP Report builds on the findings of the HMCPSI Thematic Review of Casework having a Ethnic Minority Dimension.

The sections below are a review of sections 5 (review of Year One), 6 (employment) and 7 (training and development) from the original CPS RES published in May 2002.

SECTION 3: REVIEW OF CPS FUNCTIONS AND POLICIES YEAR ONE

This section reviews those functions and policies, which were subject to a detailed assessment in order to identify whether they are having a detrimental impact on the promotion of race equality. We have used the areas below to review the individual policies. These are:

• Monitoring its policies for any negative or adverse impact on promoting race equality.
• Consulting on the impact of a public body's policies on the promotion of race equality.
• Assessing and Reviewing the impact of a public body's policy.
• Publishing the results of such assessment and consultations ensuring public access to this information and the services provided; and
• Training staff in connection with the general and specific duties.

There is also a specific duty in relation to employment issues in the RES. This requires public services to monitor the number of staff in post, applications for employment, training and promotion, details of staff who receive training, grievance procedures, disciplinary procedures and details of staff who cease employment, all by reference to their racial group. The CPS response to the specific duty in relation to employment is outlined in section 4 of this document together with point 4 of this section.

1. Functions, policies and procedures having most impact on minority ethnic groups as victims and witnesses

1.1 Racially and religiously aggravated crime

The aim of this policy is to ensure a consistent approach to prosecuting racially/religiously aggravated crime by delivering a nationally designed training course; by producing a written policy statement and supporting operational guidance; to publish the policy statement; and to continue to monitor policy implementation through 'Racist Incident Monitoring Scheme' (RIMS).

Monitoring

The CPS monitors prosecution decisions and outcomes in all racist or religious incident cases sent by the police for prosecution. Specific racially aggravated crimes have been included in the monitoring scheme (RIMS) since they were introduced in 1998. An annual report is published and widely circulated within The CPS and externally. As a separate exercise, religious crimes are reported to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) so that he can express a personal view about the case for the benefit of the reviewing lawyer and at the same time monitor the effectiveness of these new offences introduced in December 2001.

HMCPS Inspectorate conducted a Thematic Review of Casework having a Minority Ethnic Dimension in 2001 and published a report with recommendations and suggestions for action in April 2002. In response, The CPS Senior Management Advisory Group on Diversity (SMAGD) has produced an action plan and will be providing regular progress reports to The CPS Board.

The Diversity Monitoring Project (DMP), which began in October 2001, is an independent research study commissioned by The CPS to review 13000 CPS files to determine whether there is any bias in decision-making in relation to ethnicity and gender at various stages of the prosecution process. The review includes an examination of racially aggravated cases.

Assessment and consultation

A public policy statement on racial and religious crime will be published in July 2003. There has been extensive public consultation on the preparation of the policy statement, including a consultation workshop in March this year at which representatives from BME and faith communities and other external groups were given the opportunity to comment on the draft. The draft was also circulated for comment to other groups and individuals unable to attend the workshop. Following the workshop, the draft statement was substantially amended and several of the consultees attending the workshop became permanent members of the working group and continued to contribute to further development of the policy over a period of several weeks. Written comments were received from many other groups and individuals and, whenever possible and appropriate, their comments were taken into account, resulting in no less than 14 drafts before the statement went to The CPS Board for approval. Everything possible was done to ensure that the widest possible audience saw the draft policy statement; CPS Equality and Diversity Officers (EDO) facilitated regional consultation exercises and provided comments to the national working group.

Detailed guidance in support of the policy statement will be published at the same time for the benefit of practitioners and other colleagues in the criminal justice system. The guidance has been subject to the same level of scrutiny and has also been developed and improved through consultation outside The CPS.

Publicising the results of monitoring

The Attorney General will launch the policy statement in July 2003. All those who contributed to the development of the policy, including our external community groups, will be invited to attend the launch event along with media representatives. CPS EDOs will also liaise with Area Press and Publicity Officers to ensure the widest possible media coverage at local level.

Policy implementation will be monitored through RIMS and the results will continue to be published annually. More detailed information, including ethnicity of defendants and victims, will be available once the COMPASS management information system is fully functioning in 2005.

Public access to information and services

A communications strategy has been developed to ensure that the published policy will reach as wide an audience as possible. There will be a national press launch. Copies of the policy statement will be circulated at national and local level. It will be on The CPS website. Statistics on prosecutions gathered through RIMS are also published on the Internet. Local performance figures gathered through RIMS are shared with community groups at regular liaison meetings, distributed to Criminal Justice System (CJS) partners and the local media.

Training

A national training programme on racially/religiously aggravated crime has been delivered to nominated Area trainers and is in the process of being delivered by them locally to lawyers and caseworkers. Community representatives have attended national and local training sessions.

A workshop is planned for later in 2003 to bring the Area trainers together to share experiences and best practice. The training material will be reviewed to take account of the public policy statement and any further developments arising from the publication of the DMP report referred in the report.

1.2 Deaths in Custody

This is a policy on criminal casework relating to the prosecution of alleged offenders for criminal offences relating to deaths in custody. The Attorney General issued his consultation document about Deaths in Custody in March 2002. The consultation has now been completed and the Attorney's statement on the issue is awaited. The review incorporated national public consultation on the way The CPS undertakes its review into cases involving deaths in custody. There is no scope for consulting over individual cases.

It would be inappropriate to put any monitoring into place until the publication of the Attorney's statement. An innovative training programme is being prepared for those who will review these cases and will commence on 3 July 2002. It will include not just legal and human rights issues but police tactics, coroners' inquests, medical aspects of injuries and deaths as well as the impact on the bereaved.

1.3 Direct Communication with Victims

The Direct Communication with Victims (DCV) policy aims to provide victims of crime with an explanation of any decision to drop or alter the charge substantially, direct from the decision-making prosecutor. In providing such explanations, Crown Prosecutors should be sensitive to the needs of a diverse community. Monitoring National implementation of the Direct Communication with Victims (DCV) initiative was completed at the end of September 2002.

We propose to run a Victim Satisfaction Survey in 2003/04 to assess satisfaction with the service provided under the DCV scheme. The CPS Equality and Diversity Unit (EDU) are represented on the working group responsible for developing the survey methodology, which will target ethnicity and gender. Day to day implementation of the scheme has been monitored by a letter-tracking scheme devised by PA Consulting. The tracker relies on data from existing CPS computer systems, which do not enable us to identify ethnic origin. EDU advise that the new Interim Case Management System will facilitate such monitoring. DCV monitoring systems, which are to be introduced to monitor performance against National Performance Indicators, will be reviewed accordingly.

Assessment and Consultation

We propose to run a consultation exercise for DCV policies/procedures, which will link with local community engagement programmes. The DCV National Implementation Group has been developing guidance for the local consultation exercise (EDU represented on the group).

However, recent developments to establish a joint project between CPS and the Office of Public Service Reform (OPSR) to improve victim and witness care will also involve selected Areas in a local consultation exercise with victims, witnesses and local community groups. We propose to take this opportunity to consult on DCV policies. Current plans are to run this exercise sometime between April – June 2003.

Publishing Results

Results will be provided to The CPS Victim &Witness Care National Strategy Group, and to those participating in the survey and consultation exercise. The National Strategy Group will consider wider publication when finalising plans.

Public Access

Where required, letters to explain decisions are translated into the appropriate language and the accompanying CPS leaflet "The Decision to Prosecute" has been produced in 12 community languages. The leaflet is also available in Braille and audiotape format. DCV procedures provide for interpreters to be made available (where required) if a meeting is to take place to explain the decision.

Training

A national training programme has been delivered to support the initiative. In addition a series of Victim Perspective Conferences have been run to compliment the DCV course. "The Victim's Perspective " is the umbrella title for a series of conferences at which invited speakers representing victims' interests across the criminal justice system, recount their experiences of crime and the criminal justice system. Delegates are given the opportunity to listen to these experiences and then to work in small groups to examine best practice and consider ways in which changes to CPS systems and procedures will enhance prosecutions and address concerns raised by victims of crime.

Policy Directorate are currently liaising with Training Branch to build on the Victim's Perspective conference approach as core training for victim and witness care initiatives.

The Victim's Charter will not now be revised as a Code of Practice issued under the Victims of Crime Act, when this is in place will effectively replace it. The commitment in the RES was to take community views into account in The CPS response to the Victims Charter review. The review of the Victims Charter has resulted in proposals for a Victims of Crime Bill, a Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses, a Victims Advisory Panel and a new complaints procedure along with other possibilities. The CPS has given its formal response to the Victims Charter consultation. The CPS will take account of diversity and equality issues during the course of inter-agency discussions on the developing legislation but it is for the Home Office to ensure that appropriate consultation takes place on this.

1.4 Speaking up for Justice

'Speaking up for Justice' (SUFJ) aims to ensure a consistent approach to identifying cases involving vulnerable or intimidated witnesses (VIW), and to dealing sensitively with such cases by making timely and appropriate applications for special measures under the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, holding meetings with VIWs in accordance with CPS guidance and by handling cases to take account of the individual needs of the witness by developing and delivering training to CPS staff (including inviting criminal justice partners to share in the training).

Monitoring

The CPS will start monitoring the impact of Special Measures from April 2003. In summary, monitoring will capture information about the category of eligibility of the witness (child/vulnerable adult/intimidated adult); the ethnicity of the witness (self identified); the Special Measure(s) applied for and whether it was granted; and the outcome of the trial. The Police will also commence monitoring from April 2003 and efforts are being made to reach agreement that a copy of the police form will routinely be provided to The CPS with case files. This will be the only way at this point in time that the ethnicity of the witness can be captured until such information is routinely provided on all files. It will also be an additional source of information to assist with identifying cases involving a vulnerable or intimidated witness.

Assessment and consultation

Assessment of the impact of special measures based on the ethnicity of the witness will only be possible once the monitoring information is available. It will allow an initial consideration of whether there appears to be disproportionate use of application for special measures or a failure to apply for Special Measures, or in turn a disproportionate grant or refusal of Special Measures for witnesses based on ethnicity. NB. The CPS Public Policy Statement on racially and religiously crime includes information about the use of special measures and has been the subject of wide public consultation. Consultation on wider victim/witness care issues is presently being considered and may involve some aspects of Speaking up for Justice.

Publicising the results of monitoring

Monitoring returns will be made to Policy Directorate in the short term but the longerterm aim is to be able to collect monitoring data through COMPASS and the Case Management System. Discussion will take place with Business Development Directorate who will probably take on this work as to the best method for publishing the outcomes of monitoring to Areas and more widely.

Public access to information and services

A booklet about meetings between The CPS and vulnerable or intimidated witnesses has been published as part of the Action for Justice programme. Copies are available from The CPS (via the website or Communications Directorate) or from Home Office publications. Leaflets giving information about meetings between The CPS and vulnerable or intimidated witnesses have also been published.

Training

CPS training has been developed (in consultation with EDU) and roll out started in May 2002, initially to Area staff identified by their Areas as fulfilling a "champion role" and thereafter to staff identified by Areas as requiring to attend the three day classroom training based on Area needs. The three day course consists of CPS trainer led sessions on days one and three, with day two being led by an external training consultant from the Ann Craft Trust (an organisation that works with staff in the statutory independent and voluntary sectors in the interests of people with learning disabilities who may be at risk from abuse). An e-learning package for all staff has been developed and is accessible through The CPS Intranet. The e-learning package fulfils a dual role as it is both the pre-course reading element of the threeday course and is a resource for staff to use as required. The e-learning package will in due course be made available to external partners. To the end of March 2003, 1,147 CPS staff have been trained, and further courses will run in 2003/4.

2. Functions, policies and procedures having most impact on minority ethnic communities as defendants

2.1 Youth offender tariff review procedure and persistent young offender policy

Monitoring

The youth tariff review procedure was devised by the Lord Chief Justice in July 2000 following a decision of the European Court that made it unlawful for the Home Secretary to set the minimum term that a person should be detained following their conviction for a murder that was committed when they were under 18. The CPS role in the procedure is to assist the Lord Chief Justice to set an appropriate minimum term (or tariff) by summarising the aggravating and mitigating features of the murder and making representations on behalf of bereaved families. The CPS has almost completed its part in the procedure, which predated the Race Equality Scheme so the ethnicity of those convicted of murder, the murder victims and their bereaved families has not been monitored.

The Persistent Young Offender (PYO) policy is part of the government pledge to reduce delay in the youth justice system by halving the average time between arrest and sentence to 71 days for Persistent Young Offenders by 31st March 2002. The progress of all PYO cases is monitored by a tracking system provided by PA Consulting on behalf of the Youth Justice Board, a body that monitors and advises the government on the operation of the youth justice system. The tracker system is used by The CPS, police, youth offender teams and the courts and was devised prior to the Race Equality Scheme, so does not currently monitor the race of the PYO.

The CPS is aware that the adult Persistent Offender tracker system does monitor the race of the offender and has raised the issue of adapting the PYO tracker system to do so with the Home Office and the Youth Justice Board. As a result of this request, the Youth Justice Board has agreed to ascertain whether it is possible to include data on the race of PYO's on the tracker system and if so, to initiate the change.

Assessment and consultation

In the absence of monitoring, it will not be possible to assess the effect of race on the tariff review procedure.

If the Youth Justice Board adapts the tracker to include racial monitoring, the assessment of that data and any subsequent consultation will need to be discussed with our partner agencies in the PYO initiative, namely the police, the courts and youth offender teams.

Assessment and Reviewing the Policy

The CPS has regularly reviewed its contribution to the tariff review procedure, which initially took place on a monthly basis and now occurs quarterly as the majority of cases have been submitted. The CPS Policy Directorate will undertake an evaluation of The CPS role in the youth tariff review procedure in 2003. The results of the review will be used by The CPS to shape the adult tariff review procedure and to link with the Direct Communication with Victims initiative.

The PYO policy is assessed and reviewed at least once a month at multi agency meetings of representatives from the police, CPS, courts and youth offender teams at both strategic and local levels. Good practice is shared, and The CPS has contributed to the success of the policy by appointing case progression officers to identify, expedite and monitor PYO cases.

Public access to information and services

Information about the tariff review process and the decisions of the Lord Chief Justice in individual cases where there are no reporting restrictions are available to the public at www.courtservice.gov.uk/legal_pro/min_terms/index.htm

Information about the PYO initiative is available from the Youth Justice Board at 11 Carteret Street, London SW1H 9DL or at www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk

All prosecutions of youth offenders must comply with the Code for Crown Prosecutors which is available to members of the public on request from The CPS Communications Branch, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London, SE1 9HS or at www.cps.gov.uk It is available in languages other than English, audio cassette and Braille from the Communications Branch (above) or by e-mail to commsdept@cps.gov.uk.

The legal guidance manual that offers guidance on youth prosecutions was updated in 2002 to include specific reference to racism and racial motivation. The advice of The CPS Equality and Diversity Unit (EDU) and by external consultants was sought when updating the Manual. It is anticipated that the public will have access to the manual in June 2003.

Training

Experienced lawyers were selected to work on the tariff review procedure and were provided with written guidance to assist them. A presentation on the prosecutor's role in the tariff review procedure was given at the Youth Specialist Conference in 2002.

A Youth Specialist who is a lawyer with at least two years experience and has completed a National Youth Training Course reviews all PYO cases. The training course is reviewed on a quarterly basis and was updated in March 2003. It includes a case study to test and increase prosecutors' awareness of CPS policy on youth crime that is motivated by hostility based on race and religion. The CPS provides other training to youth specialists including an annual conference, a quarterly newsletter and guidance on the introduction and implementation of new legislation and initiatives.

2.2 Persistent Offenders

Monitoring

The Persistent Offender Scheme is an important part of the CJS target to narrow the justice gap (NJG), was developed by the Justice Gap Task Force and was launched in April 2003. The CPS is represented on the Task Force together with all other CJS services and agencies. The Persistent Offender Scheme is the initial response of the CJS to the government's pledge to double the chance of catching and convicting persistent offenders (PO) by 2011.

From 1 April 2003, the police in partnership with The CPS are using JTrack, a webbased tracking system, to monitor the progress of all PO offences from charge to disposal. JTrack monitors the gender and race of all POs entered on the system.

The CPS role in the Persistent Offender Scheme is to apply a premium service to Persistent Offender cases to ensure that more of their offending behaviour is brought to justice. The premium service was developed originally to deal with Street Crime offenders. Experienced prosecutors work with police in a dedicated investigation and prosecution service. Victims and witnesses are given extra support providing them with reassurance and keeping them in touch with developments. The premium service for persistent offenders includes:

• early CPS advice to get the charge right first time;
• working closely with the police throughout the preparation of the case and the court hearing.
• speeding up the criminal justice process by using measures such as Narey courts, telephone advice, urgent conferences and simple, unbureaucratic procedures;
• careful consideration given to discontinuing prosecutions;
• extra care for victims and witnesses.

Assessment and consultation

Data from JTrack will be used on a regular basis to assess the impact of the Persistent Offender Scheme in terms of gender and race.

There will be quarterly reports to the Justice Gap Task Force, which will include gender and racial monitoring. Plans for any subsequent consultation at a national and local level will need to be considered by the Justice Gap Task Force and discussed with our partner agencies in the PO initiative. At a local level, Local Criminal Justice Boards will be given an assessment of the data at the Area level. Local Criminal Justice Boards are establishing consultative groups where a wide range of community interests will be represented. These groups will provide a useful consultation point in relation to this information.

Assessment and Reviewing the Policy

PO policy is assessed and reviewed by the Justice Gap Task Force fortnightly at multi agency meetings. Day to day policy issues are managed by a CJS team, the Justice Gap Action Team (JGAT) supported by PA consulting to provide implementation support to local areas. Good practice is shared nationally on the CJS Online website and at a local level through CJS performance officers.

Until now, CPS has seconded a staff member into JGAT to contribute to policy development. To try and break the cycle of crime that persistent offenders engage in, JGAT is currently considering how rehabilitation and sentencing policies might be developed in respect of persistent offenders.

Public access to information and services

Information about the PO Scheme is available from the Justice Gap Action Team at Home Office 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H 9AT or at jgatenquiry@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk.

All prosecutions of persistent offenders must comply with the Code for Crown Prosecutors which is available to members of the public on request from The CPS Communications Branch, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London, SE1 9HS or at www.cps.gov.uk It is available in languages other than English, audio cassette and Braille from the Communications Branch (above) or by e-mail to commsdept@cps.gov.uk. commsdept@cps.gov.uk.

The Persistent Offender Scheme is described in the Narrowing the Justice Gap Framework document which the public can access at: http://www.cjsonline.org.uk/njg/documents/njg-framework.pdf

The PO operational guidance manual, good practice guide and frequently asked questions are marked restricted documents and are held on secure parts of the CJS Online site.

Training

Experienced lawyers are selected to work on persistent offender cases and have been provided with written guidance to assist them. The PO operational guidance manual, good practice guide and frequently asked questions are available at CJS Online and are updated regularly. Four regional road shows in October 2002 introduced the PO scheme to CJS practitioners and the scheme was further discussed at the Narrowing the Justice Gap Conference in March 2003. PO issues are a standing item in the NJG bulletin sent to CCPs every week.

2.3 Terrorism

This policy relates to criminal casework relating to the prosecution of alleged offenders for criminal offences relating to terrorism.

Monitoring

Casework Directorate will start monitoring the ethnic origin of offenders from June 2003. As the number of persons alleged to be involved in this type of criminal offences is very small this monitoring will be done manually using information as to ethnic origin recorded by the police. The small volume of cases means that it is likely to take some time to collect sufficient amounts of data to enable Casework Directorate to analyse this data to see if there are any significant trends. Consideration is also being given to monitoring the ethnic origin of victims in appropriate cases, although initial views are that this data will prove much more difficult to collect.

Assessment and reviewing the policy

There is some reason to believe that some racial groups could be differently affected by criminal casework relating to the prosecution of alleged offenders for criminal offences relating to terrorism as the nature of terrorism is such that offences of terrorism are usually connected with promoting, through violence, the ideological beliefs of an interest group, some of which may be aligned to racial or religious groups. No information has yet been gathered to support this assertion. Assessment of the data based on the ethnic origin of defendants will only be possible once the monitoring information is available. Until monitoring data is available, it is not possible to carry out an assessment of policy impact on criminal casework relating to the prosecution of alleged offenders for criminal offences relating to terrorism and whether there are any aspects of current policy that need reconsidering

Consultation

Monitoring of the returns will stay within Casework Directorate in the short term but the longer-term aim will be to be able to collect monitoring data through Compass and the Case Management System. Once the monitoring information is available it will allow an initial consideration of whether or not there appears to be any significant trend in the numbers of prosecutions for offences related to terrorism based on ethnicity of offenders. This will also enable Casework Directorate to consider which are the appropriate organisations for it to consult about the policy.

Public access to information and services

Casework Directorate are liaising with the Communications Division to produce information on offences related to terrorism for the information of the public. This information will be placed on The CPS website.

Training

Any training needs will be determined once the initial consideration of whether there appears to be any significant trend in the numbers of prosecutions for offences related to terrorism based on ethnicity of offenders has been concluded.

3. Other policies and procedures

3.1 Public confidence in The CPS

Senior staff in Communications Division are members of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) wide Confidence Task Force and Communications Network. A communications strategy for the CJS addressing the public confidence Public Service Agreement (PSA) target is nearing completion and The CPS communications strategy (now in draft) will need to be aligned with the CJS strategy document. This has a special section on boosting the confidence of black and minority ethnic communities in the CJS. We are investigating ways of publishing the outcomes of cases on The CPS website as suggested by the RES consultative workshop. Pending completion of the strategies above, the arrangements that are already in place are as follows:

Monitoring

We monitor requests for all publications in order to keep them updated and in stock. Translations are printed off as required (except for Welsh translations, for which there is a legal requirement, and they are kept in stock alongside the English version).

Consultation

We discuss with sponsors (The CPS divisions responsible for initiating the document) the best way to produce any document and the numbers required. Translations are dictated by local needs. If an Area requires a translation in a language we do not already have, this will then be made freely available, through us and via the intranet. We discuss needs with sponsors before any material is translated.

Public access

The availability of our publications, and translations of them, is documented in 'Inform' (the weekly newsletter which goes to all CPS staff) on first publication, and when any updates have been produced. They are also available on The CPS intranet (internal website). For example, the Domestic Violence policy booklet is being produced in audio format in five Asian languages as a result of demand identified by Policy Directorate. These will be publicised in Inform once they are ready. I n addition, all our publications are described on The CPS external website www.cps.gov.uk Orders placed with us are fulfilled within five days (generally less). Areas publicise availability locally.

Staff training

All Communications Division staff attend a Diversity training course when they join the Division. Staff are advised through Inform and the intranet of the availability of our publications.

Employment practices

We ensure that all publications comply with legislation in respect of employment law, race relations etc. All publications, including Inform and CPS News (a monthly staff newspaper) are available in alternative formats. Where necessary, we consult with the Equality and Diversity Unit.

3.2 Selection of counsel

The aim of this policy is to monitor the distribution of CPS work to external advocates and to ensure that advocates from minority ethnic groups receive a fair proportion of work. Demonstrating fair distribution of work would promote equality of opportunity and good race relations, specifically with the Bar but also with minority ethnic groups. In the longer term there might be an impact on increasing confidence of minority ethnic groups in the CJS.

Monitoring

The CPS began monitoring the distribution of work to external advocates in July 2001 (September 2001 in London). Information is kept on advocate's name, grade, ethnicity and gender together with the numbers of briefs delivered by case type.

Assessment and consultation

Monitoring was introduced after lengthy discussion (over several years) with the Race Relations Committee of the Bar Council. The information to be kept was agreed after extensive consultation within The CPS and with the Bar's Equal Opportunities Officers. Publicising the results of monitoring Under arrangements approved by the Attorney General, The CPS has set up Joint Advocate Selection Committees (JASC) for each circuit of the Bar and a discrete JASC for London to manage the lists of external advocates used by The CPS. The JASC has a responsibility for maintaining an overview of the distribution of work, including issues of ethnicity and equal opportunities. Each of the 7 JASCs is chaired by a CCP who is responsible for sharing monitoring information with the Bar's Circuit Leader and/or his/her representative at regular (usually six monthly) JASC meetings. JASC chairmen are required to provide a copy of the circuit list of advocates annually to the Attorney General with a report outlining the efficacy of the arrangements. These reports should include information about the distribution of work.

Public access to information and services

In addition to the arrangements referred to above, individual CCPs meet regularly with heads of chambers to share information about work distribution and to discuss issues of mutual concern.

Training

Prior to the introduction of monitoring, the Director wrote to all CCPs explaining the scheme and emphasising the importance of collating and sharing information with the Bar. Written guidance was provided for staff in Areas using an IT based monitoring system. Areas are responsible for providing training for staff on the general purpose of the monitoring and their part in operating whatever system is used.

3.3 Domestic Violence

Monitoring

The revised CPS policy on prosecuting cases of domestic violence (DV) issued in November 2001 includes a commitment to monitor and to publish findings. A snapshot monitoring exercise was conducted in December 2002 to pilot the proposed new monitoring system. Results are due to be published shortly.

Once computerised monitoring is available through COMPASS, domestic violence cases will be monitored continuously on a national basis. Until then, manually collected data will be obtained through snapshots.

The piloted proposed new monitoring form includes a request for information as to the ethnicity of both defendant and victim. Information in respect of the latter is currently not always available from the police.

Assessment and Consultation

Assessment and consultation at national level is carried out regularly on both a quasi-formal and informal basis through regular and frequent contact (on average at least once a month) with grass roots and national representatives of voluntary sector and minority organisations including those that specialise in the needs of women from particular ethnic communities. Such contacts take place through, for example, being asked to deliver training, speak at conferences, run workshops, take part in working groups/ Round Tables, consult on draft documents, and through personal exchanges of information/views. IMKAAN is to run a workshop on Asian DV issues at The CPS DV Conference in York on 10th June 2003.

Publishing Results

Monitoring results will be published and made available in a number of places, including The CPS website. There is also likely to be some media interest in the data, so it is likely to be published widely. Areas will also be able to give publicity to the results locally.

Public Access

The Policy is published in community languages which are available on The CPS website. We have also recently arranged for audio-tape versions of the main community languages to be made available as a result of having been informed by an elderly Asian lady at a recent DV conference at which we were speaking, that although she was pleased to see our Policy in a number of community languages, she, and many of her clients had difficulty reading in their first language.

Training

Some training on domestic violence issues is included in a number of "mainstream" courses such as the Induction course, DCV, and SUFJ (Speaking up for Justice). Local DV specific training has been delivered across a number of Areas. Involvement of local community groups to deliver and receive training is encouraged.

I t is hoped that a national DV training course will be established this year, which will focus on the dynamics of DV (and, in particular, how these may affect members of minority communities); the prosecution process and the new DV legislation (expected to be contained in the Queen's Speech Nov 03). It is intended to consult on the contents of such training and to invite appropriate external colleagues to participate in the delivery.

3.4 Legal Guidance

The Legal Guidance is a reference document that assists Crown Prosecutors and caseworkers in making a range of casework decisions. It contains around 160 different pieces of guidance covering a broad range of policy areas, many of which are the subject of separate entries in the Race Equality Scheme. It should not be viewed, therefore, as a homogenous policy in itself.

There is a clear link between use of the Legal Guidance by staff and successful adherence to core CPS policies in arriving at casework decisions. Increased use of the guidance will have a positive effect on casework performance.

Arrangements to monitor the policy/function

The Legal Guidance manual is available to all staff via The CPS intranet and should be used by all lawyers. Business Information Systems Directorate is able to monitor usage, but not by reference to ethnicity and gender.

When the manual is placed in the public domain via The CPS website from 30 June 2003, it will attract considerable interest from the public and, in particular, minority communities. Policy Directorate staff will be able to respond appropriately to communications received concerning CPS policy.

Arrangement or proposed arrangement to access and consult on the policy/function

The CPS consults in developing new policy where appropriate and considers whether new policy may have an adverse impact on minority groups. It was not appropriate to do this in respect of the totality of existing policies contained within the Legal Guidance manual, many of which have no potential to adversely impact on minority groups. However, to ensure that the manual accords with our commitments the following process was undertaken.

All sections of the Legal Guidance have been proof read by two non-lawyer diversity consultants recommended by EDU. These individuals were external to The CPS but had worked with the Service on diversity issues previously and, therefore, have a good grasp of The CPS' diversity policies. Each was asked to identify and make suggestions regarding the use of language they considered incompatible with the Service's diversity policies or otherwise offensive to minority ethnic groups. Also, each was asked to indicate, where relevant, instances where they felt the content on the guidance diverged from The CPS' equality policies.

The two proofreaders highlighted and made numerous recommendations concerning the use of language and where policy guidance could be perceived as having an adverse impact, or the perception thereof, by minority ethnic communities. On occasions the proofreaders highlighted linkages between particular guidance and CPS diversity policies, thereby enabling explicit reference to be made to diversity policy.

The proofreaders' comments were considered by the relevant authors and, where appropriate, adopted. The recommendations were taken up in the vast majority of instances. In a limited number of instances the comments received were considered but not followed. This was because these comments could not be utilised given the relevant law or policy.

Arrangements or proposed arrangement has been made to publicise the results of monitoring, assessments and consultations

The product of the proof reading process will remain confidential as will the identity of the proofreaders (and all authors). Feedback has been given on the work undertaken which has been invaluable. It is stated in the Equality Scheme that the manual was to be assessed by diversity consultants.

Individual policy advisors with thematic responsibility for specific policies are responsible for reviewing the currency and impact of policies. The level of monitoring, assessment and consultation will depend on the given policy. The Legal Guidance manual as a whole will be reviewed annually; with individual sections being updated by allocated CPS authors more frequently where required. Updates will be approved using the line management structure within Policy Directorate and the Director, where appropriate. Arrangement or proposed arrangement has been made to ensure public access to information about the policy/function.

The Legal Guidance manual will appear on The CPS website from 30 June 2003. Both The CPS and the Attorney General will give appropriate publicity to the launch. The details of the publicity strategy are currently being considered. However, this will include internal articles and press releases.

Arrangement or proposed arrangement has been made to train staff in relation to the policy/function

All staff have received an Inform entry explaining the reasons behind the decision to produce an electronic manual to replace the paper manual with which staff were familiar and how to use the electronic manual. Managers at a local level are responsible for ensuring that staff takes casework decisions in accordance with CPS policy as set out in the manual. This is part and parcel of monitoring casework quality and the performance appraisal process.

A bulletin is planned for staff to inform them of the publication of the manual to the public via the website, the implications of this for them and indicating significant revisions to policy made during the revision process.

3.5 Joint work with Home Office

The CPS has raised awareness of staff within The CPS Policy Directorate of their obligations under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 by working with The CPS Equality and Diversity Unit. Further training to CPS staff on the Act is due to be delivered shortly and priority for places is to be given to Policy Directorate staff.

This training means that CPS Policy Directorate staff will be better placed to encourage or advise the Home Office to meets its obligations under the Act, not least by suggesting when appropriate that the Home Office should consider conducting an Impact Assessment on its emerging policies.In support of this, we will draw on our work with CPS Area staff and feedback from national and local community engagement exercises to inform our advice and input on Home Office led work.

In addition, the training means that CPS Policy Directorate staff are better equipped to assess CPS policies and practices as they are developed and implemented, including implementation by The CPS of policies or initiatives for which the Home Office is responsible.

3.6 Procurement

Monitoring

In carrying out its business The CPS is responsible for procuring a wide range of goods and services from external suppliers and contractors (e.g. including stationery, reprographics, cleaning, consultancy). Much of this procurement activity is delegated to The CPS' 42 Areas. Procurement and Commercial Services (P&CS) is a small Headquarters unit with three main responsibilities:

• undertaking major procurement projects and letting national contracts;
• developing CPS procurement policy; and
• providing support and advice to CPS managers and procurement staff.

The principal objectives are to ensure that:

• best procurement practice is followed throughout The CPS;
• value for money is obtained; and
• all relevant legal requirements are met.

In accordance with current UK/EC legislation on Public Procurement The CPS monitors and captures information relating to the contracts that it awards. This activity is conducted in respect of those contracts that fall above the financial threshold (currently £100,410 ex VAT), and within the scope of the type and nature of goods and services to which the legislation applies. The information recorded for monitoring purposes includes name of supplier, category of goods and/or services, value of contract, whether the requirement was advertised and the nationality of the supplier. This information is used to compile the various statutory returns required under the legislation.

As part of the major review of Procurement Policies and Practice (P&CS) are extending the scope of this monitoring activity to contracts awarded below the current UK/EC financial threshold, where formal tendering activity forms part of the procurement process. It is also proposed to capture more information from suppliers relating to ethnicity and gender as part of the tendering process, and to ensure that similar monitoring procedures are put in place for existing contracts, where appropriate. As part of this review a contract management strategy is being established, this will ensure that equality issues are addressed in terms of the development of the specification and the suppliers' working practices and procedures.

Consultation

P&CS is introducing during 2003 a supplier development programme as part of The CPS' Procurement Strategy. This will include prospective suppliers in addition to existing suppliers. Information obtained through the monitoring process will underpin the discussion and development process. An action plan is to be developed to ensure that the agreed objectives are clear and address key relevant issues, both existing and emerging, in relation to equality and diversity.

P&CS have also initiated a network of building relationships with other procurement practitioners within Government, the wider public sector and the private sector to discuss and benchmark best practice. It is anticipated that this activity will be extended to discussions with other organisations (e.g. professional bodies, trade associations). P&CS are evaluating, in conjunction with these organisations, the most effective way of consulting and promoting The CPS' procurement business to suppliers.

Assessment and Reviewing

The results of monitoring will be made available and discussed with The CPS' newly formed Purchasing Advisory Group. This Group is chaired by P&CS and has been set up with Area, Service Centre and HQ representation to actively contribute to the on-going development of The CPS' Procurement Strategy to ensure that it remains relevant and continues to meet changing business requirements. The PAG is accountable to The CPS Finance Director. P&CS are currently considering the most effective way to disseminate and use of the results of monitoring with the existing supply base.

P&CS have established formal links with other Criminal Justice System organisations (e.g. including Court Service, Home Office and HM Customs and Excise) to assess, review and compare results of monitoring activity.

Public access to information and services

P&CS have developed a booklet entitled "Selling to The CPS". This sets out background to the work of The CPS, and gives an overview of Procurement Policies and Procedures. Its primary audience is prospective suppliers. It contains a specific section setting out diversity and equality principles relevant to Procurement. The booklet is available in hard copy, and is being placed on The CPS website shortly.

P&CS will be publishing a comprehensive "CPS Procurement Guide" during 2003. This will set out in detail the full scope of The CPS' Procurement Policy and Procedures. It will be targeted to staff and suppliers but will be freely available to anyone upon request. It will also appear on The CPS Intranet and website. The Guide will provide information and practical advice on the integration and management of diversity and equality issues throughout the procurement cycle.

Training

As part of the new CPS Procurement Strategy, a training needs analysis is to be conducted during 2003. This will evaluate the scope, frequency and coverage of procurement training required. The analysis will also evaluate the most effective method(s) for delivery and maintenance of the training programme developed.

It is anticipated that training modules will be developed to cover specific aspects of the procurement cycle (e.g. specification development, negotiation, contract management) and integrated within these modules will be relevant issue relating to diversity and equality.

The training needs analysis will also look at how to include the provision of on-going training and development to involve suppliers of goods and services to The CPS. It is anticipated that training will start to be delivered during 2003.

3.7 Information Technology (IT)

The CPS is currently developing IT systems for case files. As part of the development of the case management system The CPS is developing mechanisms for ethnic monitoring of defendants, victims and witnesses. This however is dependant on the information received from other parts of the criminal justice system.

The Compass Initial Case Management System (ICMS) is now being implemented in all 42 CPS areas. The rollout will be completed by December 2003, with all CPS casework being managed in the system by late summer 2004. The initial system will allow CPS to begin collecting information on the gender and ethnicity of defendants using the 16+1 marking scheme.

The initial case management system also allows cases with racially or religiously aggravating features to be flagged as requiring special treatment. Homophobic and domestic violence cases can be similarly flagged.

The Compass Management Information System is now collecting that information. From October 2003, CPS will be able to interrogate that data to produce reports, with breakdowns on outcomes for defendants from different ethnic groups and on particular case types.

Work will begin in June 2003 on the full Case Management System. Subject to agreement with the police service to ensure that the relevant information is submitted to The CPS, our intention is to increase the scope of monitoring to include gender and ethnicity information for victims of crime in all relevant cases. Enhanced functionality in the full system will support the completion of Racial Incident Monitoring data to provide comprehensive analysis of outcomes in hate crime cases. Further functionality will support and monitor communications with victims of crime.

The full Management Information System will be developed in consultation with the Equality and Diversity Unit to provide reports to support the work of the unit and CPS Areas in promoting and securing a prosecution process free from discrimination.

Arrangement to assess and consult

We have developed an e - strategy which sets out our response to the e needs of the CJS over the next three years

The BIS Directorate has piloted ICMS and is now rolling it out across the Country while developing ICMS which will be rolled out subsequently. During these two periods of roll out we will be working very closely with the Areas and other stakeholders to ensure that we are monitoring and providing what is needed by The CPS and its stakeholders. Our ability to communicate electronically will inevitably help the organisation to publicise the results of the monitoring, assessment and consultation in addition to providing appropriate public access to information.

We now have Customer Relationship Managers who are working with our stakeholders in the roll out of ICMS and the development of CMS to ensure that the system delivers what the stakeholders require it to deliver this includes the requirements of the Racial Equality Scheme

We view the provision of IT across the service as an enabler to The CPS' ability to provide a service to the public.

Arrangement to publicise the results of the monitoring, assessments and consultations.

Arrangement or proposed arrangement has been made to ensure public access to information and services.

The following paragraph covers our response to these two points: -

TheDirectorate has employed a specialist Communications Officer whose responsibility it is to help with and monitor all internal and external communication across the Directorate. The majority of her work at the present moment focuses on the ICMS roll out and the development of the CMS.

Arrangement to train staff

As the rollouts continue appropriate training is being provided to CPS staff to ensure that they are able to maximise the undoubted benefits that the availability of improved IT provides.

Increased IT literacy and access to electronic communication and information across The CPS and our networking with wider CJS will have a beneficial effect across all aspects of the RES. We are working widely across the CJS to ensure that our systems are compliant with others being developed which will enable us to better gather the appropriate management information to enable us to comply with the expectations place upon us by the RES. We are also looking at ways of developing our managers ability to manage using the increased quality of information the various IT systems will be capable of providing. This will ensure equality of treatment and fairness to all stakeholders to the systems.

4. Policies on employment

4.1 Recruitment,selection and promotion

A comprehensive review of Recruitment and Selection processes (including promotion which is currently a separate process) and policies began in December 2002. This includes all aspects of policy for operation throughout The CPS. The review will examine every aspect of the recruitment and selection process from the identification of a vacancy to the formal appointment of a new post holder. A report and recommendations will be produced in May 2003 for consultation with key stakeholders and phased implementation will begin in late summer. The Review covers all of the areas identified in the RES and will result in the wider use of alternative selection tools such as psychometric tests, full assessment centres, presentations, 'in-tray' exercises in addition to the more traditional interview process subject to a rigorous equalities audit. Literature made available to candidates will be fully reviewed in the next stage of the process, as will advertising channels and the use of performance appraisal material in selecting internal candidates.

Monitoring

Current records are maintained to monitor the representation of Black and minority ethnic groups within the organisation and it is intended that this monitoring will be used to measure initial improvements. The review is examining ways of improving monitoring using more sophisticated IT methods following the introduction of the new processes to enable more effective year on year comparisons to be made and meaningful and qualitative target setting to take place.

Assessment and Consultation

The review has consulted with key stakeholders, including the Equality and Diversity Unit, within the business and has been done by means of focus groups, questionnaires and an HR customer survey. Benchmarking research with outside organisations has included the study of material from the Arbitration and Conciliation Advisory Service (ACAS), the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and other professional bodies as well as research on best practice in other government departments and leading edge organisations.

Assessment and Reviewing

Initial outcomes of the review will be communicated to CPS staff through the appropriate channels and full details of the implementation of each part of the improved process will be provided as the new processes are introduced. New processes will be piloted and evaluated where appropriate (e.g. the use of assessment centres) and monitored for impact on the recruitment of black and minority ethnic groups

Public Access to information and services

Material provided to candidates about posts will be improved and simplified in order to ensure they are accessible and available to all. The greater use of IT in the recruitment process will be exploited as improvements in systems permit giving the public greater awareness of opportunities available within The CPS.

Training

A full training programme is currently in the planning stage for all of those involved at any stage in the recruitment and selection process, this includes line managers and other selection panel members as well as HR staff involved in the recruitment process.

4.2 Succession

Legal Training Scheme

The aim under this policy was to widen access to legal training for staff in administrative grades by increasing the number of people to be sponsored for the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Bar Vocational Certificate (BVC), which includes the legal trainee scheme.

Monitoring

National monitoring of the number of legal trainees who are appointed has been completed for the last three years of the scheme. Monitoring results are positive in relation to the number of trainees from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds and do not show a differential impact on different ethnic groups.

Monitoring of access to further and higher education has been difficult to collate as it has in the past been manual and Area based. The Personnel Information Management and Monitoring System (PIMMS) system has now introduced a training module, which will enable us to report nationally and by area.

Assessment and consultation

Monitoring results of the most recent recruitment into the legal trainees scheme is currently being completed. Assessment of access to further education policy will be completed once the up to date information is input. The Continuous Development Strategy Group will assess results of the data.

Consultation on both the Legal Trainee scheme and further education policy has taken place with Area senior management teams and the Board. In addition the Continuous Development Strategy Group reviews all of the policy and plans.Consultation has also been completed with the Bar Council and Law Society. An assessment will identify whether there is a disproportionate impact on different ethnic groups and as a result what action is required.

Publicise the results of the monitoring

The results of both monitoring projects will be publicised through the Human Resource Strategy group and Continuous Development Strategy Group (internal only).

Public access to information and services

The legal trainee scheme was advertised externally. In addition there are a range of career fairs and events, which are attended by Human Resource (HR) staff to publicise the scheme.

Public access to information in relation to Further Education policy is not relevant as it relates to internal staff. The further education policy is available in the PMM and staff are advised of it by the Regional Training and Development Managers.

Training

All senior managers have been advised of the policy. The policy has been communicated to Regional Training and Development Managers who act as advisors.

Positive Action Training

The CPS nationally runs a number of positive action initiatives for staff in underrepresented groups including those for minority ethnic staff. These include the Civil Service Bursary Scheme for disabled civil servants and the Pathways Programme for Black and minority ethnic staff. For 2003 two new schemes are being introduced into The CPS the fast stream summer placement scheme for disabled students, and a fast stream summer placement scheme for minority ethnic staff. The Pathways scheme has been run for the past two years and Pathways Year 3 is about to be advertised. Other positive action initiatives include the Princes Trust Volunteer Scheme and the Windsor Fellowship Scheme that offers a fellowship for an external Black and minority ethnic person to undertake a placement within The CPS.

Monitoring

We continue to monitor the uptake and evaluation of all of the various positive action initiatives, adding new ones as they become available and undertaking more monitoring in the longer term of the progress of current participants.

Assessment and Consultation

Positive action initiatives are largely driven and operated by the Cabinet Office, we are invited by them to have an input into the schemes by way of consultation and information meetings and have made our contribution to ways of improving the scheme through consultation with Black and minority ethnic staff.

Assessment and Reviewing

The Pathways scheme is run by the Cabinet Office who are currently understood to be devising ways of evaluating the scheme. The activities of Pathways and other positive action programme participants are monitored by the Human Resources (HR) Directorate and reports regularly submitted by participants. Articles concerning the participants appear in in-house publications. The HR Directorate will carry out longer-term evaluation of all positive action schemes after sufficient time has elapsed.

Public Access and Information

All positive action initiatives are advertised within The CPS as they arise, and staff encouraged to apply as appropriate. An appropriate budget is set aside each year for the sponsoring of participants in each of the schemes.

4.3 Training and Development

There were four actions required in year one of the scheme including: -

i) A review of the diversity-training programme.

ii) The development of Management Modules.

iii) A review of the selection process for Higher Court Advocates (HCA) has been reported on separately.

iv) A review of the Legal trainee scheme was dealt with under the previous section.

i) & ii) A review of the diversity training programme and development of management modules?

Monitoring

The Equality and Diversity Unit commissioned a full evaluation of the diversitytraining programme, which was reported to the Board on its completion.

On completion of each training course participants completed evaluation sheets. Monitoring of the training itself took place on a regular basis between the training and development function and the consultant trainers.

Management Training - The wider management development strategy was developed and approved by the Board. Last year further details of the strategy were developed. The strategy was consulted on through Family group meetings and a series of focus groups with existing managers and stakeholders. Key subject areas for modules have been identified. The development of each will start in 2003. A system for monitoring and evaluation will be developed with the modules, which will enable the organisation to monitor the impact of the development on management behaviour. Both the staff survey and Investors in People assessments will be used to assess changes in management performance.

Assessment and Consultation

The evaluation of the diversity training included an assessment of the course and its outcomes. In response it has been decided to include diversity and equality issues into induction rather than delivering a separate course. A review of the induction courses will be held this year to action the recommendations of the evaluation.

The evaluation included a comprehensive survey, which was distributed by the Equality and Diversity Unit.

Management Modules – Initial consultation on management training included focus groups and discussion at several family group meetings, which has identified the preferred format of training and the core needs of managers. A training needs analysis has been completed for Area Business Managers and will now inform the development of that programme.

Consultation to develop the content of modules will be with key stakeholders, managers and the Equality and Diversity Unit.

Publicising the results of monitoring

The evaluation of the diversity training was publicised at the Board and through family group meetings.

The results of the management modules will be reported back through the Board when they are delivered.

Public Access to information and services

Access to information about the function is available internally to staff through regional Training and Development Managers. Information about training and development is also available on the intranet.

Training

Training will be provided to trainers who deliver the programmes according to needs assessment and a monitoring system will be introduced to ensure that programmes are delivered according to specification.

iii) Selection process for Higher Court Advocate Training

The process of selection of Higher Court Advocates (HCA) has been monitored and evaluated through the past two selection exercises (2001/2002 and 2002/03). Processes have been improved in line with findings from the evaluation of these exercises.

Monitoring

The selection process was anonymised for the 2002 process as far as possible and monitored at each of the stages, which included application, an advocacy exercise, interview etc. As a result there has been improvement in the proportion of underrepresented groups achieving success in the selection process.

Assessment and Consultation

The selection process for 2002/2003 was governed by even more robust guidance than previous exercises to ensure that the process was consistent across The CPS. This was achieved in part by the involvement of the HCA assessors in a workshop designed to seek ways of improving the process and achieving greater consistency.

Assessment and Reviewing

The evaluation of the selection process and outcomes will be circulated to stakeholders, including the Equality and Diversity Unit, and will inform the selection process for 2003/04.

Public Access to information and services

All 100 HCA training places were advertised within The CPS and CPS lawyers were encouraged to apply as appropriate.

iv) Legal Trainee Scheme

A Legal Trainee scheme was run from September 2002 – December 2002. The scheme was advertised in the national press and invited both internal and external applications. There were 36 training places available of which 10 were centrally funded places.

Assessment and Consultation

The selection process was benchmarked against other organisations that advertise legal trainee schemes and the application form, sift criteria and written exercises were checked to ensure that they did not discriminate against any particular groups of people.

Publicising the results and monitoring

The evaluation will be circulated to stakeholders, including the Equality and Diversity Unit, and will be used to inform the future selection of legal trainees.

Public access to information and services

Future legal trainee schemes will be advertised either internally or externally, subject to CPS Areas recruitment needs.

4.4 Pay Strategy

Monitoring

The CPS contributed to the development of the Equal Opportunities Commission's guidance on Equal Pay Auditing. Unfortunately, the data available to identify minority ethnic staff within the Department is not yet sufficiently comprehensive to facilitate a valid equal pay audit in this area. The CPS is working with Service Centres to improve the existing coverage of around 70% of staff so that further monitoring can be undertaken. The CPS has committed to an equal pay audit by ethnic origin through its Human Resources Service Plan.

The development of a fixed pay progression mechanism has been a key feature of successive pay settlements since 2000. One of the key drivers has been to help The CPS reduce any potential discrimination that might have been present in its pay system as a consequence of the link to staff appraisal performance ratings.

Where CPS Areas exercise discretion in the use of flexible starting pay, details are now analysed quarterly and provided to the Departmental Trade Unions.

Assessment and Consultation

The results of the Department's equal pay audit will be discussed with all relevant parties, including groups representing minority sections of CPS staff. This exercise is scheduled for conclusion in the autumn of 2003. Changes to all CPS pay and reward systems have been negotiated with Departmental Trade Unions under the Department's Pay and Recognition Agreement.

Publicising the Results and Monitoring

Early results of the Equal Pay Audit are being shared with the Departmental Trade Unions and discussed with the Equality and Diversity Unit to ensure proper coverage of issues of potential concern. As soon as that process is complete, details will be published to CPS staff in both hard and electronic form.

Public Access to Information and Services

The intention is to publish the results of the equal pay review as soon as the final report has been agreed internally. Because of the government's interest in the equal pay agenda and our participation in the EOC project, it is likely that The CPS will receive external publicity for the results of its audit. Only 18% of organisations in the UK have completed equal pay reviews and it is hoped that The CPS will be used as an exemplar in this Area.

Training

Feedback from staff suggests that there is still some confusion about the way in which the pay system operates in The CPS. To meet this concern, we are planning a simple guide to pay and how it is calculated. Revised guidance and support in the use of flexible starting pay is also planned.

4.5 Performance Management

Monitoring

The CPS has been receiving feedback from Service Centres and the external suppliers of the Equality and Diversity Complaints Procedure (EDCP). This has focussed initially on the practical arrangements concerning the operation of the new procedure, e.g. length of time taken to complete investigations, and compliance with the Service Level Agreements (SLA) that form part of the contract with the external investigators. Annual trend analysis of complaints dealt with under the scheme is also planned.

Data on disciplinary cases is now being recorded on the Personnel Information Management and Monitoring System (PIMMS). An analysis of the data will form part of the Department's annual report on equality and diversity statistics.

The CPS Management Development Programme has only just been launched and so monitoring is not appropriate at this stage.

Assessment and Consultation

Under the SLA for the Equality and Complaints Procedure, the external investigators have been supplying reports to help The CPS quality assure decisions being reached under the Scheme. This applies where complaints are both upheld and rejected and also looks at the remedies that are recommended. Early assessment suggests the new procedure has reduced the time taken to deal with complaints but further work is needed in certain areas. Discussions with the Departmental Trade Unions will assist in this regard. In addition, reports for local management are produced which target poor management practice as highlighted during the investigation.

Publicising the results of monitoring

An article on the first six months of the EDCP is planned for CPS News that will focus on the benefits of the new scheme including confidentiality, impartiality and time taken to resolve complaints. The internal advisors have been running local workshops to explain their role in the new EDCP and the scheme in general.

Public access to information and services

Details of the EDCP have been published in a separate booklet that is available to internal staff and the wider community if requested. Details have also been incorporated into the Personnel Management Manual and are available through The CPS Intranet.

Training

Following selection exercises, tailored training has been provided to both internal advisors and internal investigators. These have been supported by follow-up meetings to address any practical issues that may have arisen as a result of actual casework.

4.6 Performance Appraisal

Monitoring

Details of all staff appraisal markings are recorded and analysed to inform the annual review of statistics on diversity issues. In addition, a separate exercise was undertaken to examine the effectiveness of diversity objectives.

Focus groups used to inform a benchmark survey of the Department's Vision and Values and the development of management standards were monitored to ensure a representative sample of CPS staff.

Assessment and Consultation

All work undertaken to date has been taken forward through focus group discussion with a representative sample of CPS staff. In addition, the original consultation exercise included discrete focus group sessions for groups with responsibility for representing Black and minority ethnic groups of staff within The CPS e.g. National Black Crown Prosecution Association. The Departmental Trade Unions have also been consulted.

Publicising the Results and Monitoring

Details of the results of the original consultation exercise were published to all staff and placed on The CPS Intranet. Following the review of diversity objectives, revised guidance and examples were included in the performance appraisal good practice guide published in June 2002.

Public Access to information and services

The CPS staff appraisal process is described in various public access documents and follows a model in common use across the civil service. The guide to good practice seeks to focus appraisal on development and performance assessment rather than the link to pay.

Training

Details of good practice have been incorporated into the Department's training courses on staff appraisal for jobholders and managers.

4.7 Support for Staff

Proposed support for minority ethnic managers

There are already a number of networks and associations for minority ethnic groups in The CPS. The relationship between them needs further clarification. A proposal to set up a network for minority ethnic managers has not initially been welcomed so we will be seeking to develop another method of achieving support for this group.

Assessment and Consultation

Members of the existing networks and associations, together with the Equality and Diversity Unit, were consulted on how support might best be offered to black and minority ethnic managers. As a result of their responses we have decided to formulate other proposals for supporting this group, which will be put to The CPS Board.

Assessment and Reviewing

Black and minority ethnic managers were asked what additional support and development they would find most useful; whether they thought a network was the most effective way of providing further support; whether they had any suggestions for ways of providing additional support; and views on how a possible network should be structured, i.e. whether it should be national, by family group or by CPS Area. Disappointingly, in spite of strenuous efforts to solicit responses, there were only four responses. The consensus was that there was not a need for another network and staff were becoming confused by the various network groups. It is suggested that the networks should meet together as a group with HR in order to clarify their relationship to The CPS (this should be a two-way process).

Public Access to information and Services

The proposal to set up a black and minority ethnic managers' network was advertised to all staff. We will continue to involve managers across The CPS in the consideration of how best to meet the need that has been identified.

Staff Survey 2002

The March 2002 Survey results were recorded both at organisational and Area level. Results revealed a number of areas requiring action.

Monitoring

Action was focused by means of a corporate level action plan which addresses four main areas, Leadership and Management, Stress, Communications.

In addition each CPS Area is required to have a formal or informal action plan addressing particular issues of concerns in that specific Area. Each area had a report cross-referenced by ethnicity to enable them to incorporate any necessary activity into their overall action plan. Activities originally envisaged for a well-being strategy have been subsumed into the various activities detailed in the corporate level action plan. For example The CPS Stress policy is currently being reviewed and rewritten and new guidance produced for staff and a comprehensive review of the provision of Counselling and Support Services (CSS) to staff is currently under way (see below).

Assessment and Consultation

There is a Staff Survey Sounding Board group, which oversees Survey activity by examining regular reports from the Areas and reports periodically to The CPS Board. The Sounding Board Group, on which the Equality and Diversity Unit is represented, also receives updates on corporate level actions.

Assessment and Reviewing

There is a communications plan which is monitored by the Staff Survey Sounding Board group which provides updates on survey related issues via the full range of communication channels within The CPS with a logo which demonstrates clearly the link with the Staff Survey 2002. A further Survey is planned for March 2004, which will enable high quality effective comparisons to be made with the 2002 Survey.

Public Access to information and services

The Staff Survey 2002 results are available to all CPS staff on The CPS Intranet and hard copies of area results were distributed to all areas.

Counselling and Support Service

A complete review of Counselling and Support Service (CSS) Provision in The CPS has been underway since January 2003 and recommendations will be made to the Board in a report in September 2003.

Monitoring

An effective data recording system has recently been introduced into the current CSS service to provide more robust data on the current usage of the service, this information was previously maintained in a more informal way and much qualitative data was anecdotal.

Assessment and Consultation

The review will seek the views of a cross section of CPS people on what kind of service is needed within The CPS by means of an externally conducted paper based survey of a representational cross section of staff. In addition benchmarking visits have been made to a variety of organisations providing employee counselling services, and advice on best practise sought from professional organisations. The existing service is currently carrying a number of vacancies and these are to be covered by an external provider until the results of the review are known. The Equality and Diversity Unit have been involved in the tendering process for this work and in the review process.

Assessment and Reviewing

The results and recommendations of the review itself will be made known to staff following the report to the Board in September 2003.

Public Access to Results and Services

The availability of the current Service is publicised in a number of ways to staff and the strengthened services to be provided pending the results of the review will received additional publicity through the usual channels of communication with staff.

SECTION 4: EMPLOYMENT

Existing Monitoring Systems

The CPS currently monitors staff by ethnicity, gender and disability for the following areas:

• Recruitment and selection.
• Staff conduct, discipline and capability.
• Equal Opportunities Complaints Procedure.
• Performance Appraisal.
• Deputising and promotion / progression.
• The numbers of staff in post and at different levels in The CPS.
• The numbers of existing staff who:
  • Raise grievances under the performance appraisal procedures.
  • Are taking out grievance procedures.
  • Are the subject of disciplinary procedures.
  • Cease employment and why.
• Pay systems.
• Training and development.

The CPS produces an annual report, the Equal Opportunities Review, using April figures. This report goes to The CPS Board. All the statistics produced are analysed and action is taken to address any adverse impact. The CPS now uses the ethnic categories introduced by the Government for the 2001 census.

Monitoring

From 1 April 2002 monitoring will be undertaken in the following areas:

• Who receives training?
• The outcome on individuals of performance assessment.
• Staff who are taking out grievance procedures.
• Staff who are making a complaint under the Equal Opportunities Complaints Procedure.
• Pay systems.

All of the above will be published in The CPS Equal Opportunities Review. This will be analysed to identify patterns or trends that perpetuate inequality.

Minority Ethnic Staff from 2000-2003

Level	April 2000	April 2001	April 2002	April 2003	2002 Targets	2003 Targets
A1	9.8	9.7	10.4	10.1	-	-
A2	13.8	13.9	14.1	15.9	-	-
B	0.0	0.0	50.0	38.1	-	-
B1	8.3	9.9	12.6	14.2	-	-
B2	5.2	6.0	6.5	10.2	4.5	9
B3	0.0	0.0	2.8	5.6	1.5	5
C1	10.2	11.1	34.7	31.8	-	-
C2	7.9	7.8	10.2	9.3	-	-
D	1.8	2.6	6.4	6.2	2.5	6
E	0.9	4.2	5.4	8.6	2	6
CCP	4.8	4.8	10.0	7.0	4	13
SCS	10.5	11.1	7.1	5.0	5	11

C1/C2 and CCP are lawyer grades with no equivalent in the rest of the Civil Service. A1 is the lowest grade and SCS the highest.

Ethnic Background Monitoring Data

Level

Statistical information by level as at 1 April 2003 includes comparison to targets for 2002 and 2005. With the exception of SCS Level all targets have been met. Whilst this is an achievement it is acknowledged that these targets are low and therefore work is currently underway to set revised targets to be achieved by 2005 and 2007. As at 1 April 2003 return rates for members of staff who have provided details of their ethnic background is 77.3%. Work is underway to try and improve this figure by explaining to staff the reason this information is sought, how it is used and assurances of how this information is stored. Area Statistical information by level as at 1 April 2003 includes comparison to the benchmark Census 2001.

Targets have been across The CPS areas and HQ Directorates for 2004 and 2005 with the aim of working towards achieving or exceeding all known Census benchmarks.

Salary

Statistical information by Level as at 1 April 2003. Currently produced as basic pay before tax and National Insurance.

The CPS in conjunction with other Government Departments has been tasked by the Cabinet Office with undertaking an Equal Pay Audit in terms of gender equity. The CPS has additionally chosen to widen this audit to include analysis in terms of ethnic background. The CPS has undertaken an analysis of both its pay structure and the individual pay details of all 7,000 (approx) staff employed by the Department. The Department has a pay structure based on grades and pay bands with explicit terms governing pay progression and promotion arrangements. The preliminary results suggest that there is in overall terms no pay discrimination at The Crown Prosecution Service. Further analysis is being undertaken which is looking in particular at the detailed pay outcomes for people at each grade, and also at each pay band within each grade. Subject to this further detailed analysis, the final results will be available.

Performance Appraisal

Statistical information by Level covering the period of the main performance appraisal cycle from 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002.

Length of Service

Statistical information by Level as at 1 April 2003. Length of Service relates to employment by The CPS only and does not take into account of any previous service in other Government Departments.

Employment Status

Statistical information by level as at 1 April 2003 by contract type (casual, permanent, fixed term, conditional).

Working Pattern

Statistical information as at 1 April 2003

This information was not specifically requested by the CRE but The CPS felt it would be useful. Recruitment, Internal Selection and Temporary Promotion Statistical information covering the period 1 April to 30 September 2002. Levels A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, D & E.

Dignity at Work - Equality & diversity complaints procedure

The complaints procedure has been revised to re-build staff confidence in the process. The revised version will include internal advisors, an informal stage and external investigators working alongside internal investigators. As already stated there will need to be monitoring of those making complaints and also how complaints are resolved.

The dignity at work campaign was first launched in July 2001 with a booklet distributed to all staff on 'Standards of Behaviour' and posters put up in workplaces. A copy of the booklet can be found in the appendix.

The aim of the campaign was to get the message across to staff that everyone has the right to be respected and that offensive behaviour should be challenged and that The CPS would take action in cases where offensive behaviour had been reported. The second phase of the campaign was launched in October 2002, with the new complaints procedure. At the same time the 'Dignity at Work' booklet was reissued to all staff and a new set of posters distributed and displayed. In addition a feature article was carried in CPS News (newsletter to all staff). This time the posters were more provocative. Messages carried included: 'who are you going to upset today', 'are you really as bad as your word', 'have you been adding insult to injury'. The intention was to get staff to think about their actions and how these impacted on others.

The campaign was run through the regional Equality and Diversity Officers. In some CPS Areas training days were run around the campaign (e.g. Devon and Cornwall), others discussed the issues in team meetings, others decided to have an official 'launch' of the campaign and so on. Reports from the Equality and Diversity Officers vary as to the success of the campaign. Some Areas have been more forthcoming and enthusiastic than others in rolling out this campaign. There have been a few 'backlash' incidents (as there always are with this type of campaign) where staff put graffiti on the posters or tore them down. These incidences were rare and where individuals have been identified managerial action has been taken.

SECTION 5: GENERAL UPDATE ON TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

This section provides a general update on RES section 7 of the scheme where there were specific actions required during 2002 – 2003. I tems under the following headings are on going or a statement of existing policy and have therefore not been reported on in this update:

• Current training and development policy
• Identification of training needs
• Access to learning and development opportunities
• Training design and delivery
• Equality training

5.1 Management Development Training

Transform

We are making progress with our rollout of the management development provision for all CPS managers. The whole initiative will be referred to and branded as Transform-Delivering Success. We chose the name to represent management development activity but also as a challenge to our managers, we are about transforming the way we manage our people and our business.

Progress

• To give some specific feedback to the Commission these are some of the recent elements of the Transform programme that are now or will very shortly be in place. For brevity, we have highlighted these elements for indicative purposes, work proceeds on many fronts to deliver a truly comprehensive management development accessible to managers at all levels in CPS.
• We are working on a comprehensive set of Management Development Standards. These will provide clear description of what CPS regards as effective and ineffective management behaviours. Diversity and equality standards will be incorporated throughout. The standards will be central to the design of all Transform initiatives. These will be launched in CPS in the late part of the summer.
• Allied to the competences work proceeds on the development of a 360- degree feedback and development and reflection log that will be an integral part of the tools used by participants in the Transform programme.
• We have commissioned a needs analysis for the development of a comprehensive programme of workshops and action based learning groups for our 42 Area Business Managers. This programme will commence in June.
• A needs analysis for Unit Heads in London was commissioned in March and a comprehensive programme of workshops and other development activity is being developed for these 25 key managers. A needs analysis is taking place for the development of a programme for the remaining non London Unit Heads, which will enable us to have in place a national programme for Unit Heads in the autumn.
• Work proceeds on the development of foundation management development for newly recruited and promoted managers and those aspiring to become managers in the future. These programmes will be ready for national rollout in the autumn.
• The Employment and Discrimination Master Classes for Chief Crown Prosecutors and other senior managers (75 will have attended by July); continue, with two further planned in June and July. An evaluation exercise is currently underway to determine the practical benefits of the master classes.
• In 2003, 75 managers attended the Workforce Management Modules, designed to help managers deal with the issues of conduct, capability, absence management, counselling and interviewing skills. These modules are designed to increase the delegate's awareness of CPS human resources policies and procedure as well as generally improving the way in which sensitive people issues are handled. We plan to extend the delivery of the modules on a regional basis from next year, with potential provision for a further 100 managers to attend in 2003/2004.
• Training on the implementation of the Race Equality Scheme for all senior policy makers across CPS HQ, as well as Chief Crown Prosecutors, Area Business Managers in CPS Areas will be rolled out from June 2003. This training is being delivered in conjunction with The CPS Equality and Diversity Unit.

Access

I t may be helpful to highlight the application process we plan to adopt for those who wish to take part in the Transform programmes.

• There will be compulsory elements for all new managers, attendance will be centrally organised by the Management Development team.
  • Induction
  • Workforce Management
  • A management skills foundation course
  • Performance Appraisal
• Area Business Managers, Unit Heads, and other priority groups will be targeted by invitation to attend appropriate events.
• Other aspects of Transform will be accessed by application supported by the line manager.
• Access to certain aspects such as the Development Centres and accreditation will be by competition and selection based on merit.
• We will continue to acquire and develop The CPS Learning Resource Centre materials as an alternative and to supplement attendance at events. We are committed to exploiting e-learning and blended learning to help minimise the need for attendance at formal training courses.

Evaluation

The Transform programme aims to develop both the breadth and depth of our leadership and management capability as an organisation. Evaluating such programmes is notoriously difficult as many factors may influence final outcomes.

We will seek to demonstrate the impact of Transform by:

• Measuring inputs against CPS business objectives, as examples; this will include measuring levels and outcomes of communication with victims, community engagement and employment related issues such as retention of staff, grievance and staff confidence in managers.
• Evaluating the success of individual Transform initiatives with reference to the original identified need and the objectives and aims formulated to address the need.
• It is important that Transform stays relevant and useful to the people taking part in the programmes and continues to make a strategic contribution to the delivery of our business and people objectives. We will form a Transform Stakeholder of users of the programmes, senior managers, and others to:
  • Keep Transform relevant
  • Quality assure
  • Identify further management development needs
  • Evaluate effectiveness

5.2 Race Equality Scheme Training

It was intended that a training programme would be delivered in 2002 - 2003 for project officers and senior managers to increase their understanding of the scheme.

The programme will now be rolled out early in the financial year 2003 - 2004 and specific plans are in place on a regional basis to deliver it.

The design of the programme took longer to develop than originally anticipated. The training need of all senior managers as well as policy officers was considered at the same time and the brief was extended to combine the training with training for senior managers in community engagement.

It has also been decided to include the Equality and Diversity officers in the training.

Monitoring and Review

A computerised system was introduced during 2002 – 2003, which will enable us to monitor training nationally. The reports required of the system were identified. There was then a period of testing and review to resolve difficulties. Training managers and administrators have also been trained.

Due to the number of training courses being delivered for major initiatives there has been a considerable amount of inputting required.

The system is now available and reports will be completed on a quarterly basis, which will provide us with trend information and performance on an area basis. The reports will be assessed by the Continuous Development Strategy Group and Human Resources Strategy Group.

CONCLUSION

This is the first published update for year 1 of the RES. A lot has been achieved but a lot more needs to be achieved.

The CPS will establish systems so that Areas can impact assess policies and measure outcomes locally and national policy leads will have the information to assess how impact assessments have been conducted by Areas and report back to SMAGD and The CPS Board.

The CPS considers the scheme to be a live document. This means that we will be reviewing the scheme on a regular basis. Updated schemes will be published yearly. As new legislation and policies are introduced, we will include them in the scheme. As such the Victims and Witness Pilot in West Midlands, the Employee Domestic Violence Policy, the Charging Shadow Schemes, and the Criminal Justice Bill are to be incorporated in year 2 of the RES.

We will also re-visit and monitor Year One policies annually again when COMPASS is available.

We are in the process of producing an equality schemes for gender, disability and sexual orientation. The four schemes (race, gender, disability and sexual orientation) will be brought together as one overarching Equality Scheme. They will, however, retain their specificity in terms of these four areas of discrimination.

We welcome questions, comments or queries on the Scheme. Please send these to: Equality & Diversity Unit, Room 729, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London, SE1 9HS.

APPENDIX 1: TIMETABLE OF POLICY REVIEW

YEAR 1 : 2002 - 2003

• Racially/Religiously aggravated crime
• Deaths in custody
• Direct Communication with Victims and CPS response to the Victim ' s Charter
• Speaking Up for Justice Youth offenders
• Persistent offenders
• Terrorism
• Public confidence in The CPS
• Selection of counsel
• Domestic violence
• Legal guidance for The CPS
• Joint work with Home Office
• Procurement
• Information technology (IT)
• Recruitment, selection and promotion
• Succession
• Training and Development
• Pay strategy
• Performance management
• Performance appraisal
• Support for Staff

YEAR 2 : 2003 - 2004

• Charge, bail, mode of trial, plea, alternative pleas loosely known as 'plea-bargaining'
• Cross border and organised crime
• Advocacy
• Taking forward new measures
• Trial issues
• Computer crime
• Advice given to the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers, the Home Office and others
• Cases relating to Incitement to Racial Hatred (Part III of the Public Order Act 1986)
• Religiously aggravated crime
• Internal communication to CPS staff
• Transport and subsistence payments for CPS staff
• Victims and Witness Pilot,
• Employee Domestic Violence Policy,
• Charging Shadow Schemes,
• Criminal Justice Bill

YEAR 3 : 2004 - 2005

• Human Rights Act 1998
• Freedom of Information Act 2000
• Serious complaints against the police
• Unduly lenient sentences
• Disclosure of unused material
• Work related deaths
• Immigration and asylum seekers
• Records and security policy
• European and International serious and organized crime initiatives
• Joint work with Probation Service
• CPS property policies
• CPS Board and corporate governance

Appendix 2 : Impact Assessment Form

Impact Assessment Form

Guidance on Completing the Race Impact Assessment Form

1. BACKGROUND

This Guidance has been prepared to provide assistance to CPS in completing the Race Impact Assessments Form, and information for those who will be undertaking consultation during those assessments.

The Equality and Diversity Unit (EDU) has overall responsibility for the form. In order to assist in completing this form it may be helpful to refer to the full CPS Race Equality Scheme (RES), which is available from the EDU (it is also available on the intranet under the heading of Personnel and then Diversity). Where relevant you may need to seek advice from the EDU and the Equality and Diversity Officers based at the family groups.

If The CPS Areas complete the impact assessment form then it is to be signed off by the CCP. When completed by HQ directorates it must be signed off by SMAGD. For forms to be sent to SMAGD please send the completed forms to the Equality and Diversity Unit (see diagram below – Appendix 2A).

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

This act places a general duty on The CPS, as a Public Authority, to promote racial equality. The general duty involves ensuring that our policies, service delivery and employment systems have 'due regard' to the need to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination; and promote equality of opportunity and promote good relations between persons of different racial groups.

'Due regard' is meant to mean, how relevant any policy or function is to the general duty. For example, determining charges or commissioning outside lawyers is likely to be more relevant than buildings maintenance or accounting procedures, though these will not necessarily be of low relevance.

The Act also places specific duties on The CPS which include assessing and consulting on the impact of policies, monitoring, publishing the results of the impact assessment and consultation; ensuring public access and training staff in connection with both the general and specific duties. The specific duties are a means to an end – steps, methods, and arrangements – not ends in themselves. Your ultimate aim must be to meet the general duty. In practice, this will mean making sure that the duty is central to the way you carry out any function where race equality is 'relevant'. The duty is not optional and The CPS must meet it even if the ethnic minority populations they serve are very small. The duty's aim is to make race equality a central part of any policy or service that is relevant to the duty. Promoting race equality is not something you can choose to do or not do. The best approach is to build these responsibilities into the work you already do, and to adapt your plans and priorities accordingly.

Impact Assessment

An impact assessment is a systematic way of finding out whether a policy (or a proposed policy) affects different racial groups differently. A working definition of an impact assessment is "…the process of identifying future consequences of a current or proposed action in terms of race equality and the task(s) of taking all possible steps to ensure that members of different racial groups are not adversely affected compared with others". Its merits are that it enables you to:

• take account of the needs, circumstances, and experiences of those who are affected by your policies;
• identify actual and potential inequalities in outcomes;
• consider other ways of achieving the aims of your policy;
• increase public confidence in the fairness of your policies; and
• develop better policies generally.

2. COMPLETING THE RACE EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT FORM

A) Function/Policy Name and Description

A 'function' is any activity of The CPS. A 'policy' is any prescription, whether formal or informal, written or customary, on how a function should be carried out. As such it will include policies, strategies, guides, manuals and common practice I deally, your policies should be clearly and plainly written. However, in reality, some policies are built into everyday procedures and customs. As a result, not all policy has been open to inspection and review. You should therefore include in any assessment of a policy an examination of long-standing 'custom and practice' and management decisions, as well as your formal written policy. Employment will be a relevant function for The CPS as it is bound by the general duty and specific duties.

B) Section 1

To decide how relevant or what impact particular policies and functions are, you should collect relevant and reliable evidence and data. For example, you may need both quantitative and qualitative data. You can get this from existing databases and research, or collect fresh data from research, consultation, complaints, or ethnic monitoring. You should also ask: are the public (especially ethnic minority communities) worried about certain functions and are certain policies discriminatory or racist?

If no consultation has taken place or information gathered then the answers to the questions in the form will be challengeable and its validity called into question. There needs to be a clear 'audit trail' to how you have come to your decisions.

i) Eliminating Racial Discrimination: Racial discrimination may be either direct or indirect. Direct discrimination occurs when a person (including the public authority), on racial grounds, treats someone less favourably than others in similar circumstances e.g. deciding to prosecute or charging with a more serious offence wholly or partly on racial grounds. Indirect discrimination occurs when a considerably smaller proportion of people from a particular racial group can meet a condition or requirement that is applied equally to everyone, and it is to their disadvantage because they cannot comply with it e.g. if the literature of a particular policy is being produced only in English it will disadvantage non- English speaking people. The condition or requirement will be unlawful unless it can be justified on non-racial grounds. Under the Act, a racial group is a group of people defined in terms of colour, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origin. Victimisation also constitutes racial discrimination. It is unlawful to treat someone less favourably because they are known to have, or are suspected of having made a complaint of racial discrimination; planned to make a complaint; or supported someone else who has made a complaint of racial discrimination, or to be planning to do so. An example of victimisation is where an employee is refused leave because they backed up a colleague's complaint of racial discrimination.

ii) Promoting equality of opportunity can be defined as taking definite steps to increase opportunities and access for members of discriminated groups. Providing positive action measures can be a way of removing barriers to achieve this goal.

iii) Promoting good race relations refers to actions that enable people from all racial groups to come together to form a strong, mutually supportive community. 'Good race relations' is shorthand for communities that respect their differences and are secure in the knowledge that they have equal rights and opportunities, pool their talents and energies to achieve common goals. Public authorities such as The CPS are key players and their leadership, combined with respect for the people they serve, is vital to encourage racial and social harmony.

In practice, the three parts of this requirement will frequently overlap, depending on the nature of the function: promoting equality of opportunity may also eliminate racial discrimination and promote good race relations. If one measure does not fulfil all three parts of this requirement, separate measures may be required to satisfy each part.

C) Section 2

1 Adverse Impact

A policy has an adverse impact if it disadvantages one or more racial groups. This may be the case if there are significant differences in patterns of representations or outcomes between racial groups. These differences may not in themselves be proof of racial discrimination. What it does mean is that you need to look at any differences and see if these work to disadvantage any racial group. If they do then the policy has an "adverse impact."

If you can justify the policy, you should ask whether you could limit its adverse impact on some racial groups, and any potential it might have for damaging race relations, by taking certain steps, such as positive action. In specific circumstances, the Act allows 'positive action' as a way of overcoming racial inequality. Positive action allows you to provide facilities or services i.e. training to meet the particular needs of people from different racial groups; target job training at those racial groups that are under-represented in a particular area of work; and encourage applications from racial groups that are under-represented in particular areas of work. Positive action plans are only meant to be a temporary solution and you may need to review them regularly. You should not use them if the under-representation, or the particular need, no longer exists. You should also consider explaining, clearly and fully, how the policy will benefit everyone in the community.

The following questions may help you to assess the impact of your policy.

• Does the quantitative data show differences between racial groups?
• Does the qualitative data show differences between racial groups?
• Do the differences between racial groups amount to adverse impact, and for which groups?
• Could the policy be directly or indirectly discriminatory?
• If the policy could be indirectly discriminatory, could it still be justifiable under the Act?

In coming to the above decision, with whom have you consulted and/or what information was gathered?

You must set out your arrangements for consulting the people who are likely to be affected by your policies. Try to make sure that you reach people who have first-hand experience of your functions and policies. This will help to raise your profile and reputation among the communities you serve. It will also increase your understanding of needs and concerns that you might have overlooked.

2 Public Concern

• To answer if there is any public concern that functions/policies are being operated in a discriminatory manner, you could, if you have not already:
• Consult the people who will be affected by your policy - make sure any information you provide is in an accessible form; and use various consultation methods, such as surveys, focus groups, and local meetings;
• Refer to the findings of recent surveys or research you may have been involved in (and others), and check through past complaints and litigation.

3 Altering Policy

If your assessment shows that your policy is likely to have an adverse impact on some racial groups, you need to consider ways of dealing with this. You could make changes to the policy, or the way you plan to operate it. You could also consider a different policy altogether, which still achieves the aims of your original policy, but avoids any adverse impact on race equality. You may find the following questions useful in considering different policy options.

• Is the adverse impact due to the policy or its application?
• Which aspect of this causing the adverse impact?
• How far do each of your policy options advance or restrict race equality?
• In what way does each option advance or restrict race equality?
• If you do not adopt the option that is better for race equality, what are the consequences for the racial groups affected by each option, and what are the consequences for you?

Before making a decision, you should also check that by adopting an option that reduces adverse impact on one racial group you do not create adverse impact on another group. If this is unavoidable, you may need to satisfy yourself that you can justify this legally.

Consultation is often most effective when it uses a variety of methods, such as surveys, focus groups, and public meetings. However, to help you to meet the duty, use consultation methods that allow and encourage people from all racial groups to play a full part. The situation should make them feel confident enough to talk about their needs and their experiences of your policies and services. Make sure the method you choose gives the people who are likely to be affected by the policy the chance to consider it and respond.

Your aim should be to:

• Consult people from all racial groups, and take their views into account when developing various policy options;
• Tailor the consultation methods you use to the groups you want to reach;
• Use different community groups for different consultation exercise in order to avoid consultation fatigue;
• Manage the consultation exercise well, timetable it properly, make sure its aims are clear, and explain the exercise to the people involved;
• Publish the results of these consultations, and feed them back into your planning and decision-making processes in an open and responsible way.
• Try to be inclusive of all groups such as refugees and asylum seekers, Gypsies and Travelers, women, people from different age groups, disabled people, businesses people, families or individuals in rural areas, including shopkeepers and restaurant owners from ethnic minorities.
• Hold meetings in community venues, because this is the level at which most people have concerns.
• Keep the meetings informal, as people can feel uncomfortable and shy in formal situations.
• If possible hold separate meetings for particular groups.
• Ask local ethnic minority community associations and racial equality councils to help you to organise consultation meetings, possibly jointly.
• Do joint consultations with your CJS partners.
• Check that dates, times, and venues (for example, licensed premises) do not clash with religious customs or festivals.
• Use written questionnaires or interview surveys to reach a wider audience, or a particular cross-section of your local community.
• Translate consultation material, and publicity material for the consultation exercise, as required, and arrange for interpreters at meetings.
• Set up lay advisory groups for regular discussion and consultation, and choose members for their special skills or experience.
• Make sure all groups get any other help they to take part in and respond to your consultation exercise.

3 Publishing the results

Under the duty, you must publish the results of any assessments, consultations and monitoring that you carry out to meet the duty. This part of the general duty is about accountability. If we are to win and keep public confidence, we need not only to promote race equality, but also to be seen to be doing so. By publishing the results of your activities, you will show that you are carrying out the specific duties of monitoring; and assessing and consulting on the effects of your policies.

A written report should always be produced regarding very relevant functions/policies, and summaries at least should be published for those of medium relevance, indicating that the full report is available on request. As the reports are likely to be detailed and technical, you could make them available only to anyone who asks for them. However, summaries of the reports should be published.

You can use whatever methods you normally use (for example, newsletters or your annual report or your website) to publish the information. Sometimes, you may prefer to publish the results separately, as part of the assessment, consultation, and monitoring processes. For example, if you have carried out a full race equality impact assessment of a proposed policy, you may find it useful to publish the results as a basis for formal consultation. You may want to use the local, national or specialist press or other media – both mainstream and ethnic minority – to place a notice, telling people where they can find more detailed information.

D) Section 3

If you judge that the function/policy to have any level of impact on race relations it should be considered to be incorporated it into the RES. There are three types of impact assessment that you can carry out. An initial assessment or screening is normally based on data you already have. It may only produce estimates or signs of unequal impact, but it is useful for developing new policies, or considering changes to existing policies.

A partial impact assessment builds on an initial assessment, outlines risks and benefits, and includes advice from experts and interested groups.

A full impact assessment would include the results of external consultation, a final recommendation, and arrangements for monitoring and evaluating the policy and its impact in practice.

You may not need to carry out a full impact assessment in every case but If you decide to carry out a full impact assessment, for example because the need for this is indicated by an initial or partial assessment, we would advise you to approach it systematically, for example by following the eight steps listed below.

1. Identify the aims of your policy and how it works.
2. Examine data and research available.
3. Assess the likely impact on race equality.
4. Consider other ways of achieving the same policy goals.
5. Consult people who are likely to be affected by your policy.
6. Decide whether to introduce your policy.
7. Make arrangements to monitor and review your policy and its impact.
8. Publish the results of the assessment.

3. CONCLUSION

The race equality scheme is about making race equality a reality, and using monitoring, assessment, and consultation to achieve this. The general outcomes of putting the race equality scheme into practice are likely to include:

• A more representative workforce at all levels;
• No significant differences in satisfaction among staff, based on their racial group;
• No significant differences in public confidence, based on people's racial groups;
• No significant differences in service outcomes between racial groups; and
• No significant differences in people's satisfaction with services, based on their racial groups.
• No unjustifiable differences in law enforcement outcomes between racial groups.

Appendix 2A

Overall Structure of RES : 16th January 2003

• Where policy comes under the RES scheme EDU have overall responsibility and the relevant directorate have responsibility to review the policy and present it to SMAGD who sign it off.
• Responsibility for local Area policies rests with the CCP and must include an impact assessment; they should consult local EDOs and the EDU for support, advice and assistance.
• DAC, Equality Committee, Area Equality Committee can be utilized in order for local policies to be held accountable.
• Area proformas for equality and diversity should include work done under the RES.