Local Scrutiny Involvement Panel

We have established Local Scrutiny Involvement Panels to enable members of local communities to influence our decision making processes. We use this process to understand how we can improve our policies, and deliver better services. By listening to local panel members we give them opportunities to put forward recommendations to inform our business. The feedback from these discussions is then given consideration within our governance and operational structures and where possible changes are made.

The Strategic panel looks at wider CPS business for example our business plans, the Community Engagement and Hate Crime strategies. Performance data on unsuccessful prosecutions known as attrition is reviewed regularly.

The Operational panel scrutinises completed hate crime cases to help us to build robust cases in the future as a result of the learning. Racial and Religiously Aggravated cases, Disability Hate Crime, and Homophobic and Transphobic are the types of hate crime scrutinised by the panel. Notifications on the lessons learned from the Operational panel are then sent to the individual lawyers. There is also wider communication with legal teams to increase understanding of the panel recommendations.

The panels are made up of a wide range of community interests for example representatives from the field of Domestic Violence and women’s groups, organisations providing services to disabled people such as Yakkety Yak a multi-media company, Equality Councils, the Road Victims Trust, and faith community representatives

We recruit new panel members from local communities and organisations on a regular basis.  If you are interested in joining either of the Local Scrutiny Involvement Panels please contact Inderpal Kaur-Singh on inderpal.kaur-singh@cps.gsi.gov.uk or telephone on 0118 908 2509 or 0791 755 0408 to have an informal chat.