Other information

Equality of service delivery

The principles of equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of how we work. Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2025 sets out how we implement these principles, both as an employer and as a prosecution service.

We are delivering a range of activities to enable our people to lead with inclusion at the heart of what we do. This includes engaging with communities to drive public confidence; using the insights of communities and relevant sources to drive improvements in policy and practice; maximising our use of technology and data to support delivery and broaden our reach; and being a leading voice on inclusion across the criminal justice system (CJS), working with partners to facilitate change.

We are proud to be one of the UK’s most inclusive employers. We have increased our workforce diversity, making us one of the most diverse organisations across the Civil Service as well as being recognised as a disability confident leader. The CPS is also in the top 75 of the social mobility employer index, and as one of the top 10 most family friendly workplace in the country.

Our established national and local community engagement mechanisms include:

Community Accountability Forum (CAF);
Stakeholder consultation groups on Violence Against Women and Girls, Hate Crime, Mental Health, and Child Sexual Abuse;
Community Conversations and Local Scrutiny Involvement Panels.

All of these forums are supported by a range of stakeholders including third sector, civil liberties groups, academia and community representatives. This year, we have held Community Accountability Forums on:

the development of our VAWG Strategy, with a focus on children, young people and D/deaf and disabled people;
Identifying and tackling disproportionality in the criminal justice system;
Victims and Witnesses; and
the development of our first ever Defendants Strategy: Fairness for All 2025 launched in July 2022, the first year of which focused on mental health, youth justice and proportionality of our decision making.

The valuable insights gained from these forums have helped to ensure the voices of victims, subject experts and those with ‘lived experience’ continue to help shape and inform these programmes of work.

However, we know that there is more we can do to build trust and confidence in the CPS and wider criminal justice system. This year we have published a summary of the independent research into disproportionality in CPS decision making, commissioned from Leeds University, which looked at a range of characteristics including ethnicity. As part of our work on disproportionality, we are also looking in detail at joint enterprise/secondary liability prosecutions.

Additionally, the CPS is committed to ensuring that children coming to the attention of the Youth Justice System (YJS) are seen as ‘children’ first and ‘offenders’ second. The primary focus of this approach is prevention, diversion, and a clear commitment to developing interventions to avoid unnecessary prosecutions and criminalisation of children. In May 2023 we updated our ‘Children as suspects and defendants’ guidance to reflect ‘Child First Justice’ -ensuring that the special considerations which apply to cases involving children are enshrined in our working practices.

Also, in May 2023 we published our updated legal guidance for suspects and defendants with mental health conditions. This included major revisions to reflect changes to the Criminal Procedure Rules, improved terminology and up-to-date practical support for prosecutors.

Complaints to the Parliamentary Ombudsman

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) looks at complaints about UK government departments and other UK public organisations if a Member of Parliament (MP) refers the complaint to them.

The PHSO only has jurisdiction over the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in respect of the Victims’ Code and therefore can only consider complaints, referred by MPs, from members of the public if the CPS has not met its obligations under the Victims’ Code.

The Victims’ Code places a statutory obligation on criminal justice agencies to meet the standard of service to victims of crime set out in the code.

On 1 April 2021, a new Victims’ Code designed to provide victims of crime better support from the police, courts and other criminal justice agencies came into force. Full details of the new code can be found on the Ministry of Justice website at the following link https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications/the-code-of-practice-for-victims-of-crime. The Victims’ Code places a statutory obligation on criminal justice agencies to meet the standard of service to victims of crime set out in the code.

The obligations the new Victims’ Code places on the agencies concerned include the following:

victims be provided with information when reporting the crime, including information about the criminal justice process and be told about programmes or services for victims;
victims be provided with information in a way that is easy to understand and provided with help to be understood, including, where necessary, access to interpretation and translation services;
victims be provided with information about the trial, trial process and their role as a witness;
victims be referred to services that support them and have services and support tailored to their needs;
victims be provided information about eligibility for compensation under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme and
victims be given information about the outcome of the case and any appeals.

In the 2022-23 financial year, the PHSO received 16 complaints regarding the CPS. Of these, 15 were concluded without an assessment (i.e., concluded at Initial Checks & Primary Investigation) one case was accepted and is currently ongoing and under investigation.

Auditors

These Accounts have been audited by the National Audit Office on behalf of the Comptroller and Auditor General at a notional cost of £120,000 (see Note 3 in the Notes to Departmental Accounts). No other external audit services were commissioned by the CPS.

Max Hill KC
Director of Public Prosecutions
5 July 2023