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Crown Prosecution Service Annual Report 2004 - 2005

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Summary of Performance and Achievements

Aim

The CPS works in partnership with the police, courts, the Home Office, Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) and other agencies throughout the Criminal Justice System (CJS) to reduce crime, the fear of crime, and their social and economic costs; to dispense justice fairly and efficiently and to promote confidence in the rule of law.

The CPS's overall aim, which reflects the Government's priorities for the Criminal Justice System, is to:

Deliver a high quality prosecution service that brings offenders to justice, helps reduce both crime and the fear of crime and thereby promote public confidence in the rule of law through the consistent fair and independent review of cases and through their fair, thorough and firm presentation at court.

CPS Vision

The CPS is working to become a world-class, independent prosecuting authority that delivers a valued public service by:

  • Strengthening the prosecution process to bring offenders to justice: providing an independent prosecution service, working with the police from the outset of a case to its disposal; advising the police before charge; building and testing the strongest possible prosecution case and presenting that case fairly in the courts on behalf of the public.
  • Championing justice and the rights of victims: assessing the needs of victims and witnesses and their likely evidence from the outset and throughout the life of the case; making sure their experience of the CPS and the CJS encourages them and others to come forward in future to play their part in bringing
    offenders to justice.
  • Inspiring the confidence of the communities we serve: being visible, open and accountable for our decisions; being responsive to the needs of the community and providing a valuable public service; being seen as the decision-makers who decide which cases should be brought to court and bringing them to justice.
  • Driving change and delivery in the Criminal Justice System: as a self-confident leader, influential in delivering local criminal justice and in shaping the CJS of the future.
  • Being renowned for fairness, excellent career opportunities and the commitment and skills of all our people: where everyone is treated on merit; where people of ability can rise to the top and where all our people are renowned for their commitment, skills and dedication to justice.
  • Having a strong capability to deliver: by transforming HQ support to frontline delivery, securing value for money and efficiencies to reinvest in frontline prosecution services; improving the management of prosecution costs; harnessing IT to support CPS business; and delivering through effective programme and project management.

Cases for advice and prosecution

In 2004-05 the CPS advised the police, or took a pre-charge decision, in 441,194 cases, an increase of 126.3% from 2003-04.The CPS prosecuted a total of 1,262,815 defendant cases in magistrates' courts and in the Crown Court, compared to 1,371,990 in the previous year.

Case results

  • During 2004-05, 943,000 defendants were convicted in magistrates' courts and almost 72,000 defendants were convicted in the Crown Court. The CPS made a substantial contribution to the CJS's target to narrow the justice gap, although only the more serious offences fall within the scope of this measure.
  • The percentage of cases discontinued in magistrates' courts continued to fall, from 15.5% in 2002-03, to 13.8% in 2003-04 and to 12.5% in 2004-05.
  • Unsuccessful outcomes in magistrates' courts fell from 21.1% of all outcomes in 2003-04 to 19.2% in 2004-05.
  • In the Crown Court, unsuccessful outcomes fell from 25.4% of all Crown Court outcomes in 2003-04 to 24.2% in 2004-05.
  • Overall unsuccessful outcomes fell from 21.4% of all outcomes in 2003-04 to 19.6% in 2004- 05, while convictions rose from 78.6% during 2003-04 to 80.4% in 2004-05.

People

  • At the end of March 2005, the CPS employed a total of 7,808 people, 142 more than at the same time the previous year. This includes 2,723 prosecutors and 4,427 caseworkers and administrators. Over 91% of all staff are engaged in, or support, frontline prosecutions.
  • The CPS has 544 prosecutors able to advocate in the Crown Court and on cases in the Higher Courts and 233 Designated Caseworkers (DCWs) able to present cases in magistrates' courts.

Delivery of Public Service Agreement targets

  • Latest available figures show 1.131 million offences were brought to justice for year ending December 2004.
  • The proportion of ineffective trials in the Crown Court has reduced from 17.8% quarter ending April 2004 to 14.4% for the quarter ending March 2005, an improvement of 3.4 percentage points.
  • For the magistrates' courts, the proportion of ineffective trials has reduced from 27.1% for the quarter ending April 2004 to 22.7% for the quarter ending March 2005, an improvement of 4.4 percentage points.
  • The British Crime Survey for the year to December 2004 shows 43% of the public believe the CJS is effective in bringing people to justice, an improvement of 3 percentage points in the year to December 2003.
  • The CPS is taking a leading and influential role in Local Criminal Justice Boards with eleven of the 42 Local Criminal Justice Boards being chaired by Chief Crown Prosecutors in 2004-05
  • Delivery of Public Service Agreement targets
  • Latest available figures show 1.131 million offences were brought to justice for year ending December 2004.
  • The proportion of ineffective trials in the Crown Court has reduced from 17.8% quarter ending April 2004 to 14.4% for the quarter ending March 2005, an improvement of 3.4 percentage points.
  • For the magistrates' courts, the proportion of ineffective trials has reduced from 27.1% for the quarter ending April 2004 to 22.7% for the quarter ending March 2005, an improvement of 4.4 percentage points.
  • The British Crime Survey for the year to December 2004 shows 43% of the public believe the CJS is effective in bringing people to justice, an improvement of 3 percentage points in the year to December 2003.
  • The CPS is taking a leading and influential role in Local Criminal Justice Boards with eleven of the 42 Local Criminal Justice Boards being chaired by Chief Crown Prosecutors in 2004-05

CPS Reform

  • Statutory charging has been introduced in 15 CPS Areas throughout 2004-05, with the remaining 27 Areas currently operating under 'shadow' charging arrangements. These arrangements are supported by CPS Direct which provides an out-of-hours telephone service that allows prosecutors to work from their own home to provide the police with charging advice through the night and at weekends.
  • The CPS is introducing an Advocacy Strategy which aims to make the Service one that routinely conducts its own high-quality advocacy in all courts. The Strategy will build on the success of the Hertfordshire and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Higher Court Advocate (HCA) Pathfinder Pilots, which were established in June 2004. In March 2005, the CPS recorded its highest level of HCA activity, conducting 830 Crown Court sessions and advocating on 2,330 cases.
  • Following the successful evaluation of the NWNJ pilot sites the CPS, in partnership with the police, is now commencing national rollout. There are currently 81 Witness Care Units open to the public with at least one unit in each of the 42 areas.
  • The COMPASS Case Management System (CMS) has continued to be a success throughout 2004-05. As of March 2005 the system had 7,598 users across the CPS, and a total of nearly 3 million cases have been registered since the system went live compared to one million at the beginning of April 2004.
  • The CPS has developed its leadership and development programme,Transform, into a comprehensive programme of development for existing, new and aspiring managers. Training has been provided to all Area and Sector Business Managers, new Chief Crown Prosecutors and seventy-eight Unit Heads.

Public Service Agreement (PSA) Targets

The PSA targets for the CPS and CJS from the Spending Review (SR) 2002 for 2003-2005 are:

  1. To improve the delivery of justice by increasing the number of crimes for which an offender is brought to justice, to 1.15 million by 2005-06, with an improvement in all CJS areas, a greater increase in the worst performing areas and a reduction in the proportion of ineffective trials.
  2. To improve the level of public confidence in the CJS, including increasing that of ethnic minority communities, and increasing year on year the satisfaction of victims and witnesses, whilst respecting the rights of defendants.
  3. To increase value for money from the CJS by 3 per cent a year.

Delivering these targets is the joint responsibility of the CPS, Home Office and DCA. SR2000 included PSA targets to improve the delivery of justice and public confidence. Some of these targets have been carried forward into SR2002.

Targets not carried forward into PSA for SR2002 (to reduce the time from arrest to sentence or other disposal for all defendants; for youth court cases; and for cases involving persistent young offenders) are continually monitored to ensure performance is maintained.

New PSA Targets

The PSA targets for the CJS from SR 2004 for 2005-2008 are to:

  1. Improve the delivery of justice by increasing the number of crimes for which an offender is brought to justice to 1.25 million for 2007-08; and
  2. Reassure the public, reducing the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour, and building confidence in the CJS without compromising fairness.

Under the SR2004 settlement, the first target for 2005-06 was reset from 1.2 million to 1.15 million offences brought to justice. The adjustment removed a number of minor motoring offences (known as 825/90 offences), which had previously been counted.

Efficiency Plan

The review also contained an efficiency plan to deliver £34 million savings by March 2008. The plan includes savings from the implementation of the charging programme; improvements in productive time through the use of the CMS; increased use of HCAs and DCWs; rationalising administrative support functions provided through Service Centres; reducing sickness absence; improving procurement practices through e-commerce; and by exploiting the advantages of new technology in administration and front-line operations.