Acting CCP, Kate Brown, introduces CPS Wessex

I'm Kate Brown, and I'm the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in Wessex, and my role is to deliver a high-quality and efficient prosecution service for the people of Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight.

To assist me in doing this, I have an Acting Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor, John Montague, and an Area Business Manager, Denise Meldrum, and we work with a dedicated team of prosecutors, paralegal officers and administrators, who help us deal with our caseload.

Each year, we prosecute around 50,000 cases in the magistrates' court and 5,000 more serious cases in the Crown Court and these cases range from minor crimes to more serious matters such as burglary, rape and murder. And we're acutely aware of the impact these crimes have on people - not just the victims of those crimes, but their families, the witnesses and the wider communities who are touched by everything going on around them.

Our aim is to be a modern prosecution service. And this means embracing new technologies, getting rid of paper files, presenting cases electronically and communicating faster with our partners in the police and the courts. It also means we can communicate better with victims and witnesses in crimes, so that they know what's happening to the cases they're involved with as soon as decisions are made.

As I say, everything we do is about people, and we engage with our communities in a number of different ways. We have three Hate Crime Scrutiny Panels that look at cases that have already been in the courts and help us learn lessons from the way we've dealt with them and this leads to changes and improvements in the way we do things. For example, we've changed the way we write to victims of crimes after the results of cases and we've changed the way we work with the police to get cases before the courts quicker.

We also have a Community Involvement Panel, made up of volunteers, who help look at our business plans and procedures and they bring their own experience from their own organisations and the views of their communities with them, so that what we do reflects the needs of our diverse communities in our four counties.

I hope this gives you some idea of what we're about and what we're trying to achieve. We're responsible to you and we're always keen to hear your views on any aspect of the Criminal Justice System or of the work of the Crown Prosecution Service. So if there is anything of concern to you, please don't hesitate to get in touch.