Progress on delivery
Table of contents:
- PSA 23: Make communities safer
- PSA 24: Deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive Criminal Justice System for victims and the public
- CPS Departmental Strategic Objective
- PSA Targets from Spending Review 2004
PSA 23: Make communities safer
The government's vision is that:
- Continuing to build on the significant reductions in crime achieved over recent years, fewer people are victims of crime, especially the most serious crime – violent, drug and alcohol-related crime – and the public are protected from the most harmful offenders; and
- Local agencies are accountable and responsive to the needs and priorities of the local community, leading to increased public confidence in those agencies.
The Home Office leads on this PSA, and the CPS contributes to one of the four priority actions and its two indicators.
Measure: Priority Action 3
Tackle the crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour (ASB) issues of greatest importance in each locality, increasing public confidence in the local agencies involved in dealing with these issues
Indicator 3: Public confidence in local agencies involved in tackling crime and ASB
Performance: Not Yet Assessed
Baseline of 45% established from six months British Crime Survey (BCS) interviews (October 2007-March 2008) published July 2008. The requirement for a statistically significant improvement is to increase confidence to 46.5%. Latest outturn has not yet been assessed.
It is not possible to compare the latest outturn against the baseline as they are based on overlapping data. Progress against the baseline will be assessed in July 2009 when the first set of comparable data will be available.
A more stretching target and trajectory is being established as part of the work to set confidence targets for all forces – as the only single top-down numerical target for forces post-Policing Green Paper. The new single target for police forces on confidence increases the likelihood of achieving the overall national measure.
Indicator 4: The percentage of people perceiving ASB as a problem
Performance: Not Yet Assessed
A baseline of 16% as measured by the British Crime Survey interviews (2007/08) was published in July 2008. The requirement for a statistically significant improvement is to reduce the percentage of people perceiving ASB to be a problem to 15.4%. The latest outturn has not yet been assessed.
It is not possible to compare the latest outturn against the baseline as they are based on overlapping data. Progress against the baseline will be assessed in July 2009 when the first set of comparable data will be available.
The Home Office leads on this PSA, and the CPS contributes to one of the four priority actions and its two indicators.
CPS progress since April 2008
- The CPS has a network of specialist ASB prosecutors, one based in each of the CPS Groups (plus London). They are tasked with improving the CPS's implementation of ASB legislation (applications for anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) following a conviction and prosecuting breaches of ASBOs) by providing internal training and guidance to colleagues, liaising with partner agencies locally, and by engaging with communities.
- The Head of the CPS ASB Delivery Unit sits on the multi-agency ASB Governance Board, which coordinates the strategic direction and monitors progress of the ASB contribution to PSAs 23, 24 and 14.
- The CPS contributes to the Community Justice programme of work through prosecuting in Community Justice courts in pilot locations and by working with the Her Majesty's Court Service (HMCS) team to develop concepts such as community impact statements.
PSA 24: Deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive Criminal Justice System for victims and the public (data is currently only available to enable assessment of performance against two of the five indicators)
The government's vision is for a Criminal Justice System that:
- Is more effective in bringing offences to justice, especially serious offences;
- Engages the public and inspires confidence;
- Puts the needs of victims at its heart;
- Has simple and efficient processes.
The CPS contributes to this PSA which is led by Ministry of Justice.
Indicator 1: Effectiveness and efficiency of the Criminal Justice System in bringing offences to justice
Performance: Not Yet Assessed
Based on previous performance trends, it is likely that improvements will be secured in the proportion of serious violent, sexual and acquisitive offences brought to justice. Work is underway to improve the quality of performance data on this indicator and it should be possible to report on offences brought to justice performance as a rate of crime in early 2009.
The budgeted CJS spend in bringing offences to justice is projected to fall by approximately 4.5% over the period 2008-11 in real terms. The budgeted spend in 2008/09 is £7.87bn compared to £7.95bn in 2007/08.
Indicator 2: Public confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System
Performance: Not Yet Assessed
Based on historic performance trends, it is likely that both elements of this indicator - CJS as a whole is fair and CJS effective - will be met, if not exceeded. This will mean an overall increase of public confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of the CJS.
The first set of comparative data will be available in January 2009. The baselines stand at 56% for confidence in the fairness of the CJS and 37% for confidence in the effectiveness of the CJS.
Indicator 3: Experience of the Criminal Justice System for victims and witnesses
Performance: Not Yet Assessed
Based on historic performance and a trend showing continued improvement since March 2005 it is likely that both elements of the indicator will be met. This signifies greater victim and witness satisfaction in relation to overall contact with both the Police and the CJS as a whole.
The first set of comparative data will be available in April 2009.
Indicator 4: Understanding and addressing race disproportionality at key stages in the Criminal Justice System
Performance: Improvement
Given the nature of this indicator, there is no specific directional target to reduce disproportionality.
Progress, however, towards the 2011 PSA milestone is on schedule with LCJBs already collecting and analysing data on racial disproportionality and taking steps to address it where it is unjustified. Should this milestone be met, the CJS will be better informed to identify and explain race disproportionality at key points within the system.
Indicator 5: Recovery of criminal assets
Performance: Improvement
Baseline: £125m recovered in 2006/7.
£33.2 million recovered between April – June 2008.
Although current performance shows improvement, it is still below the necessary trajectory to recover £250m in 2009-10. Actions, however, are underway to address the performance gap.
CPS progress since April 2008
- In the year ending September 2008, the CPS secured convictions in respect of 905,230 defendants, comprising 824,032 in magistrates' courts and 81,198 in the Crown Court. This compares with 903,942 convictions in the year ending September 2007.
- Unsuccessful outcomes represented 13.3% of all outcomes in magistrates' courts and in the Crown Court in the six months ending September 2008, compared with 14.9% in 2007/08.
- Within these figures:
- Unsuccessful outcomes in magistrates' courts fell to 12.7% of all outcomes during the six months ending September 2008, compared with 14.3% for 2007/08;
- Magistrates' courts cases discontinued fell to 8.7% in the six months ending September, compared with 9.9% for 2007/08;
- Unsuccessful outcomes in the Crown Court for the six months ending September 2008 fell to 19.2% of all outcomes, compared with 20.7% for 2007/08.
- Unsuccessful outcomes for hate crime fell to 17.8% in the six months ending September, compared with an annual target of 18%. From April 2008 hate crime data excludes domestic violence crimes which are now reported within the Violence against Women (VAW) measure. Hate crime unsuccessful outcomes for 2007/08 were 29.1%, but excluding domestic violence were 20.2%.
- In April 2008 a new Violence against Women (VAW) indicator was introduced to monitor performance on domestic violence, rape and sexual offences. Unsuccessful outcomes for VAW fell to 28% in the six months ending September, compared with 31.1% in 2007/08 and an annual target of 29%.
- The CPS launched a Violence against Women strategy and action plans in June 2008. The action plans expand the good practice in domestic violence across a wider range of issues such as rape, prostitution, trafficking, and child abuse. The 2008/09 plans focus on rationalisation and coordination of the VAW strands, alongside setting up performance management systems and systems to monitor victim and stakeholder satisfaction.
- Following its successful rollout in 2006, Statutory Charging continues to deliver considerable benefits. Prosecutors work closely with the police to build robust cases for prosecution which help to bring more offences to justice, increase the number of guilty pleas and reduce the number of cases that are discontinued. Figures for September 2008 show an increase in the guilty pleas rate from 71.5% (baseline figures set for 2001/02) to 74.5% in the magistrates' courts whilst the discontinuance rate (discontinuance rate is the proportion of completed defendant cases in which the prosecution decided to drop proceedings before evidence was heard in court) in the magistrates' courts has fallen from 15.5% to 13.1%.
- Conditional Cautions were established by the Criminal Justice Act 2003. In appropriate cases they can be used as a means to divert from court those whose offending is serious enough to warrant prosecution but who are prepared to admit their offence and agree to undertake rehabilitative or reparative activities as a condition of being cautioned. The decision whether or not to offer a Conditional Caution can only be taken by a prosecutor. National rollout of conditional cautioning was completed in March 2008. As of 30 September 2008 11,569 had been issued nationally.
- The Streamlined Process complements Criminal Justice Simple Speedy Summary (CJ:SSS). It aims to introduce the principle of proportionate file build thereby reducing bureaucracy. The Streamlined Process expects the following benefits to be realised once the process has been tested and fully rolled out:
- A reduction in police officer and administrative staff time taken to prepare a prosecution file;
- Little or no detrimental impact on the guilty plea rate at first hearing;
- Little or no increase in the number of adjournments before trial.
- By the end of September 2008 it had been piloted in seven Areas, with a view to full rollout during 2009.
- In June 2008 the CPS launched the Victim and Witness Strategy 2008-11. The strategy provides a framework to support the delivery of its existing commitments to victims and witnesses, as well as mapping out a clear direction for future policy development – which will assist in the achievement of PSA 24.
- Further specialist domestic violence courts (SDVCs) were identified in 2007/08 through the national SDVC programme across CPS, Home Office and MOJ, bringing the total to 98 by April 2008.
- The CPS is embedding hate crime scrutiny panels in all Areas. These panels are made up of community representatives and scrutinise a random selection of finalised hate crime case files to help the CPS improve future handling and prosecution. The Service will hold a Sharing the Learning Conference on the experience to date with scrutiny panels and will produce a linked toolkit in April 2009.
- CPS continues to recover assets from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and earlier legislation. In the first half of 2008/09, the CPS has secured 626 restraint orders and 2,334 confiscation orders with a total value of £65,455,454, against the full year target of £109,013,000.
- CPS Areas have enforced over £8.6 million confiscation orders in the first half of 2008/09 compared with £4.9 million enforced in the same period in 2007/08.
CPS Departmental Strategic Objective (DSO)
To bring offenders to justice, improve services to victims and witnesses and promote confidence, by applying the Code for Crown Prosecutors, adopting a proportionate approach to determine which offenders should be charged and which should be diverted from court, and by firm and fair presentation of cases in court.
DSO Element: Bring offenders to justice
CPS Progress since April 2008:
- Not Yet Assessed
- This indicator will be based on a measure of the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system. An interim or prototype measure will be used from April 2008 in the first year.
- See progress against PSA 24
DSO Element: Improve services to victims and witnesses
CPS Progress since April 2008:
- Some Progress
- To increase the proportion of victims and witnesses that are satisfied with the way they are treated by the CJS. (PSA)
- See progress against PSA 24
- The proportion of witnesses who attend trial
- Average national witness attendance for the first 6 months of 2008/09 stands at 85.9%. This is an improvement from 85% - the average rate for 2007/08.
DSO Element: Promote confidence
CPS Progress since April 2008:
- Not Yet Assessed
- Increased levels of public confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of the CJS.
- See progress against PSA 24
- Understand and address race disproportionality at the key stages of the CJS system. (Measured by LCJB returns). (PSA)
- See progress against PSA 24
- Increased recovery of criminal assets. (PSA)
- See progress against PSA 24
DSO Element: Apply the Code for Crown Prosecutors
CPS Progress since April 2008:
- Some Progress
- % of the Code properly applied. (Measured through the HMCPSI reviews of compliance with the code).
- CPS uses the Casework Quality Assurance (CQA) sampling process to assess the quality of its casework. From the 1 April to 30 September 2008 19,894 cases were sampled under CQA.
- According to CQA data, the Code decisions were made satisfactorily in 96.2% of the cases sampled.
DSO Element: Firm and fair presentation in court
CPS Progress since April 2008:
- The CPS advocacy strategy continues to increase the use of in-house advocates, both Crown Advocates (CAs) and Associate Prosecutors (APs), to improve the prosecution and management of cases. The CPS exceeded the national target for CA deployment in 2007/08 by returning counsel fee savings of £17.1million. In the first six months of 2008/09, gross counsel fees savings were £10.9million. There have also been significant increases in AP deployment and in-house magistrates' courts coverage. In 2007/08 84.2% of all magistrates' courts sessions were covered in-house, 20.4% by APs. By the end of September 2008/09 this had risen to 85.4% and 23.5% respectively.
- The CPS has been granted an extension of AP statutory powers through the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. This has increased the range of hearings that APs can deal with in the magistrates' courts enabling flexible deployment of CPS resources. A pathfinder project is underway in four Areas to extend AP powers to allow them to undertake a wider range of contested hearings. The pathfinders will go live in early 2009 and will be evaluated approximately six months later.
- The process of developing a national Advocacy Quality Management Strategy began with the development and implementation of the CA Progression Framework in all CPS Areas by the end of July 2008. An Advocacy Assessor Pathfinder project is currently underway in Avon & Somerset, South Wales, Humberside, Hampshire & IOW, Greater Manchester, Hertfordshire, London and West Yorkshire. This will ensure that CPS advocates are effectively monitored and perform to an appropriate standard.
Overall assessment: some progress
There has been an improvement in two out of the five indicators.
PSA Targets from Spending Review 2004
PSA Target 1: Improve the delivery of justice by increasing the number of crimes for which an offender is brought to justice to 1.25 million by 2007/08.
An offence is said to have been brought to justice when a recorded crime results in an offender being convicted; cautioned; issued with a penalty notice for disorder; given a formal warning for the possession of cannabis or having an offence taken into consideration by the court.
Measure: Increasing the number of crimes for which an offender is brought to justice to 1.25 million.
Final Outturn: Met
Target was exceeded: the provisional estimated final outturn shows 1.445 million offences were brought to justice in the 12 months to the end of March 2008. This is 195,000 above the target level and a 44% increase since 2001/02.
The numbers of offences brought to justice for 2007 and 2008 are un-validated data from the courts and police, and are therefore provided as management information as they are provisional and likely to change. The final validated OBTJ data for 2007 was published as a National Statistic by the Ministry of Justice in 'Criminal Statistics in England and Wales 2007' on 27 November 2008.
PSA Target 2: Reassure the public, reducing the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour, and building confidence in the CJS without compromising fairness.
Improve public confidence in the CJS, including increasing that of ethnic minorities and increasing year-on-year the satisfaction of victims and witnesses, while respecting the rights of defendants.
The target has been met as two out of the three elements of the following have been met.
(Joint CJS target)
Measure: Public confidence in the CJS
This is measured by BCS, which asks whether the public believes the CJS is effective in bringing people who commit crimes to justice.
Target: an increase
Final Outturn: Met
- Baseline (BCS 2002/03): 39 %
- Final outturn (BCS 2007/08): 44 %
Measure: Black and minority ethnic perceptions of fair treatment
This is measured by questions in the Citizenship Survey, which asks whether people from black or minority ethnic background believe the CJS would treat them worse than people of other races.
Target: a decrease
Final Outturn: Met
- Baseline (Home Office Crime Survey 2001): 33 %
- Final outturn (Citizenship Survey 2007): 28 %
Measure: Victim and witness satisfaction
This is measured by the BCS, which asks questions on victims' and witnesses' satisfaction with the Criminal Justice System.
Target: an increase
Final Outturn: Not met
- Baseline (BCS six months to March 2004): 58 %
- Final outturn (BCS 2007-08): 59.8 % (below the required statistically significant increase to 60.1%)
