The Crown Prosecution Service Autumn Performance Report 2003 Presented to Parliament by the Attorney General by Command of Her Majesty
December 2003
Introduction
The 2003 Autumn Performance Report for The Crown Prosecution Service sets out performance and progress against the Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets for the Criminal Justice System. These targets were introduced as part of the 2002 Spending Review (SR) and came into effect from 1 April 2003.
Role
The Crown Prosecution Service was set up in 1986 to prosecute criminal cases investigated by the police in England and Wales. In undertaking this role, The CPS advises the police on cases for possible prosecution, reviews cases submitted by the police for prosecution, prepares cases for court and presents those cases at court.
Before proceeding with a prosecution, Crown Prosecutors must first review each case against the Code for Crown Prosecutors. The Code is designed to make sure everyone knows the principles The CPS applies when carrying out its work. Those principles are:
- whether there is enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction against each defendant on each charge, and, if so,
- whether a prosecution is needed under the public interest.
The Director of Public Prosecutions is under a statutory duty to publish the Code for Crown Prosecutors. The fourth edition of the Code was published in October 2000. The changes were matters of emphasis rather than principle.
The CPS is a public authority for the purposes of the Human Rights Act 1998. In carrying out their role, Crown Prosecutors must apply the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights in accordance with the Act.
Organisation
The Service is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald QC, who took up position on 1st November 2003 replacing Sir David Calvert Smith QC. The Director is superintended by the Attorney General who is accountable to Parliament for the Service. The Chief Executive is Richard Foster, who is responsible for human resources, finance, business information systems, criminal justice policy and business development, allowing the Director to concentrate on prosecution and legal issues.
The CPS has 42 Areas across England and Wales, each headed by a Chief Crown Prosecutor who is responsible for the delivery of a high quality prosecution service to his or her local community. Each Chief Crown Prosecutor is supported by an Area Business Manager, and their respective roles mirror, at a local level, the division of responsibilities between the DPP and the Chief Executive. Administrative support to the Areas is provided through a network of 10 Service Centres each responsible for providing effective services to a ‘family group’ of Areas.
Aim
The CPS works in partnership with the police, courts, the Home Office and Department for Constitutional Affairs and other agencies throughout the criminal justice system to reduce crime and 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 Crown Prosecution Service’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
Public Service Agreement Targets
The PSA targets for The CPS and the Criminal Justice System from the Spending Review 2002 are:
1 To improve the delivery of justice by increasing the number of crimes for which an offender is brought to justice, to 1.2 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 Criminal Justice System, 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 Criminal Justice System by 3 per cent a year.
Delivering these targets is the joint responsibility of The Crown Prosecution Service, Home Office and Department for Constitutional Affairs.
Spending Review 2000 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 were 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..
More information on The CPS and its contribution to these targets, set out in The CPS Strategic Plan for 2003-06 and Business Plan for 2003-04, is available on www.cps.gov.uk and from:
Crown Prosecution Service 50 Ludgate Hill London EC4M 7EX
Progress on Delivery
PSA Target 1:
Improve the delivery of justice by increasing the number of crimes for which an offender is brought to justice to 1.2 million by 2005/06; with an improvement in all CJS areas, a greater increase in the worse performing areas and a reduction in the proportion of ineffective trials.
‘Offences brought to justice’ counts the number of offences for which someone is convicted, cautioned, has had taken into consideration by the court, or for which they receive a penalty notice (for some disorder cases). Only notifiable offences are counted.
‘Ineffective trials’ are trials that do not go ahead on the date expected and have to be rescheduled.
‘Unsuccessful outcomes’ are finalised cases that do not result in a conviction, such as discontinuances in magistrates’ courts cases and judge directed acquittals in the Crown Court.
| Performance Measures | Latest Outturn |
|---|---|
| Increasing the number of offences for which an offender is brought to justice. The target will be met if there are 1.2m crimes for which an offender is brought to justice in the year ending March 2006. [compared with the baseline year ending March 2002] | Latest performance on offenders brought to justice is 1.074 million in the year ending June 2003. (provisional figure). |
| An improvement in all CJS Areas. The target will be met if each of the 42 Criminal Justice Areas brings more offences to justice than they did in the baseline year ending March 2002. | Figures for June 2003 show 29 Areas have improving performance compared to the baseline, whereas 13 Areas have declining performance. |
A greater increase in worse performing areas The target will be met if the average performance improvement achieved by the worse performing areas is greater than the national average performance improvement in the year ending March 2006 as compared to the baseline year ending March 03 |
Worst performing Areas will be identified in January 2004. This target will be measured by; The total number of offences brought to justice as a percentage of recorded crime and; The number of offences brought to justice per police officer |
A reduction in the proportion of ineffective trials. The target will be met if the national level of improvement for Crown Courts and magistrates’ courts is 27% or less by the year ending March 2006. This equates to a reduction in Crown Courts from 24% to 17% and in magistrates’ courts from 31% to 23%. |
At June 2003 the proportion of ineffective trials in the Crown Court Centres has reduced from 24% (baseline) to 22.3%, an improvement of 1.7% For the magistrates’ courts the proportion of ineffective trials has reduced from 31% to 29.4% in the year ending June 2003, an improvement of 1.6%. |
Progress since April 2003
CPS
- In magistrates’ courts, unsuccessful outcomes fell from 23.2% of the total in the year ending March 2003 to 21.8% in the first quarter of 2003/04, an improvement of 1.4 percentage points. In the Crown Court, unsuccessful outcomes fell from 25.5% of the total in the year ending March 2003 to 24.8% in the first quarter of 2003/04, an improvement of 0.7 percentage points.
- All 42 CPS Areas are introducing shadow charging schemes jointly with their police partners, in advance of a statutory charging scheme being introduced through legislation in the Criminal Justice Bill. By the end of September 2003, The CPS and ACPO had introduced 94 Shadow Charging Schemes in 32 Areas, including 11 in the 24 street crime high priority Borough Command Units.
- The CPS has introduced ‘CPS Direct’, a new I.T based service which is providing 24/7 support on early advice and charging to the police in three pilot areas in West Yorkshire, Humberside and London.
CJS
- All 42 Local Criminal Justice Boards have produced local targets and plans to show how they will narrow the justice gap and reduce ineffective trials in their Areas as a contribution to the national target. _ 13 priority areas have been identified where extra support and assistance is needed to improve performance.
- A number of initiatives are being piloted in Essex, Bedfordshire, Manchester, N.Wales and West Midlands to improve case management and reduce the proportion of ineffective trials. Fixed appointment hearings are being tested in Essex and Bedfordshire.
- A Joint Cracked and Ineffective Trial Monitoring Scheme in the Crown Court was launched nationally on 1 September 2003, to formalise procedures on identifying the reasons for ineffective trials and enable focused action to be taken on improving performance.
PSA Target 2:
Improve the level of confidence in the Criminal Justice System, including increasing that of ethnic minority communities, and increasing year on year the satisfaction of victims and witnesses, whilst respecting the rights of defendants.
Public confidence in the Criminal Justice System and the satisfaction of victims and witnesses are assessed using the British Crime Survey (BCS).
| Performance Measures | Latest Outturn |
|---|---|
| Improve the level of public confidence in the Criminal Justice System. This will be met if, by the year ending March 2006, the level of public confidence has increased, compared to the baseline year ending March 2003 | Latest performance from the British Crime Survey for the year to June 2003, shows that 40% of the public believe the CJS is effective in bringing people who commit crimes to justice, compared with 39% in the year ending March 2003. |
| - including increasing that of ethnic minority communities. This will be met if, by 2005/06, the level of confidence amongst black and minority ethnic people is statistically higher than that during the baseline year ending March 2003. - | Data on confidence of black and ethnic minority people will be available Autumn 2003. |
| - increasing year on year the satisfaction of victims. This will be met if the level of satisfaction of victims increases year on year during April 2003 to March 2006, with the final year showing a statistically significant increase over the first year. | Baseline data for victims to be established July 2004. |
| - increasing year on year the satisfaction of witnesses. This will be met if the level of satisfaction of witnesses increases year on year during the target period from April 2003 to March 2006, with the final year showing a statistically significant increase over the first year. | Baseline data for witnesses to be established July 2004. |
| respecting the rights of defendants. | The rights of defendants are protected by law. Any evidence that a defendants rights have been infringed would be thoroughly investigated. |
Progress since April 2003
CPS
- Joint pilots with the police and supported by the Office of Public Service Reform are underway in Gwent, North Wales, West Midlands, Essex and South Yorkshire. The pilots are testing ways to improve the care and support provided to victims and witnesses of crime. The pilots will run until March 2004 and will be evaluated to inform the Home Office-led revision of national standards of witness care and provide good practice for all Local Criminal Justice Boards.
- The Attorney General and The CPS have undertaken a consultation exercise on pre-trial interviews with witnesses by prosecutors as part of the recommendations arising from the Director of Public Prosecution’s review of the prosecution of the Damilola Taylor murder case. The consultation period ended in July 2003 and responses are currently being collated for the Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions to consider by the end of the year.
CJS
- Details of how the target is to be measured were published in July 2003.
- Guidance on working to improve public satisfaction and confidence issued to Local Criminal Justice Boards in July 2003
- Framework guidance has been issued to Local Criminal Justice Boards to produce their local public confidence delivery plans by the end of November 2003
- Research findings on public confidence in the Criminal Justice System to be published in November 2003
PSA Target 3:
Increase value for money from the Criminal Justice System by 3 per cent per year.
| Performance Measures | Latest Outturn |
|---|---|
To increase value for money from the Criminal Justice System by 3% per annum The target will be met if by the year as the ending March 2006 there is an improvement in value for money in the CJS of at least 3% per year on average compared with the year 2002/03. |
Some CPS-led initiatives will have efficiency and value for money benefits for the police and the courts as well CPS. |
Progress since April 2003
CPS
- The roll-out of the shadow and statutory charging schemes will provide a better grip on cases from the outset, reducing the number of cases that are discontinued and increasing the number of early guilty pleas. Both will save time and effort on the part of the police, CPS and courts.
- Increasing the proportion of cases dealt with by joint police and CPS Criminal Justice Units and Trials Units is producing better value for money through joint administration and streamlined case management processes. By September 2003, these Units were handling around 50% of all CPS prosecution cases.
- The CPS is developing proposals for greater use of Designated Caseworkers to deal with straightforward guilty plea cases in magistrates’ courts, freeing up prosecutors to deal with magistrates’ courts trials and the more serious cases heard in the Crown Court.
- The CPS is introducing e-Procurement across the Department as a platform for improving efficiency and achieving significantly improved terms from its suppliers of bought in goods and services. In conjunction with this initiative, it is introducing framework agreements for a variety of goods and services where savings and efficiencies can be realised.
- Roll-out of the Compass case management system is automating case handling and case tracking processes. By September, The CPS had rolled out its new case management system in 120 of 157 sites and was live in 30 out of 42 areas. Roll-out is on schedule for all 42 Areas by December 2003.
PSA Targets from Spending Review 2000
The Spending Review for 2000 also set a number of targets for the Criminal Justice System. Some of these for narrowing the justice gap and public confidence, have been rolled forward into the SR2002 targets. Progression on these targets are included on pages 3-8 of this report.
Other targets set in SR2000 not carried forward to SR2002 targets were for reducing the time from arrest to sentence or other disposal for all defendants, for youth court cases and for cases involving persistent young offenders. Current performances against these targets is shown below.
| Performance Measures | Latest Outturn |
|---|---|
| Reduce by 2004 the time from arrest to sentence or other disposal for all defendants by: | |
|
Ministers agreed that each of the 42 Local Criminal Justice Boards would a set timeliness targets for all defendant cases and for youth court cases, with no overall national |
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Targets have now been set in each area. |
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Met and ongoing – The average time taken from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders for the quarter to June 2003 was 64 days. |