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 was also ranked as one of the top 10 most family friendly workplace in the country in 2023 by Working Families.

Our established national and local community engagement mechanisms include:

Community Accountability Forums (CAF) and National Scrutiny Panels;
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 a number of national forums on a range of issues including:

Women and girls as suspect and defendants to inform the development of our upcoming VAWG Strategy;
The CPS’ approach to the prosecution of homicide and attempted homicide in cases involving Joint Enterprise/Secondary Liability;
Listening to community concerns and providing reassurance in response to the spike in antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crime following the events of October 2023; and
A National Disability Hate Crime panel which led to the updating of our legal guidance on Stalking or Harassment to include disablist aggravation.

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 our programmes of work.

The CPS also understands that disproportionality can impact on public confidence. We are committed to identifying and addressing disproportionality in the CPS, building on the work undertaken by Leeds University which identified racial disparities in charging decisions, and working with partners to address this across the wider criminal justice system.

As part of our wider work to identify and address disproportionality, the CPS responded to concerns from civil liberties groups and academics about the potential disproportionate use of the joint enterprise doctrine, particularly in cases involving young black boys and men.

In February 2023, the CPS commenced a six-month pilot, to manually review homicide and attempted homicide prosecutions brought on a joint enterprise basis. In developing this work, the CPS held two Joint Enterprise National Scrutiny Panels with a range of stakeholders from academia, the legal profession, civil liberties groups and the voluntary community sector to review the interim findings of the pilot, published in September 2023 and Joint Enterprise casework, including where evidence of gang association is a feature. This provided stakeholders with an opportunity to better understand our decision making, seek clarification and provide feedback. It also enabled the CPS to have a better understanding of community concerns and perspectives.

In response to the findings of the data collection pilot, Scrutiny Panel and feedback from stakeholders, the CPS will be implementing a number of measures, including the national monitoring of all homicide and attempted homicide cases brought on a joint enterprise basis, which commenced on 1 April 2024. This engagement will also inform upcoming revisions to our guidance on Decision making – in ‘gang’ related offences.

The CPS appreciates the value of working in partnership with a range of criminal justice stakeholders to drive system wide change. We have worked in partnership with NPCC and other agencies across the Criminal Justice System, to inform the changes to the previously named Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Youth Gravity Matrix, now called the Child Gravity Matrix (CGM). The CGM is a triage tool used mainly by police and decision makers to decide the most appropriate outcome for children who offend. The gravity scores within the CGM have been updated to reflect the changing attitudes to the way that children are seen and dealt with by the criminal justice system. The revisions include an expansion of the mitigating factors to incorporate a child’s needs and circumstances, including mental health and vulnerability.

Additionally, following feedback from a number of stakeholders about the value of reviewing cases of Rape where No Further Action is taken, several CPS Areas will be holding jointly led Police-CPS Rape No further Action (NFA) Scrutiny Panels to review cases and identify potential areas for improvement.

Also, our network of Area Inclusion and Community Engagement Managers (ICEMs) continue to engage with a diverse range of communities, to raise awareness of the role of the CPS, how we prosecute crimes and the support available to victims and witnesses. Through their Local Scrutiny Involvement Panels, which are refreshed on an ongoing basis and Community Conversations, they engage with victims’ advocates, third sector organisations, communities, academia and other criminal justice agencies to improve casework outcomes.

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 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. Full details of the Victims Code can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-code-of-practice-for-victims-of-crime/code-of-practice- for-victims-of-crime-in-england-and-wales-victims-code

In the 2023-24 financial year, the PHSO received 19 complaints regarding the CPS. In the same period 21 cases (which includes cases received in a previous financial year) were concluded without an assessment and 0 CPS cases were accepted for detailed investigation. One outstanding CPS case, accepted for a detailed investigation in a previous financial year, was concluded (not upheld) in 2023-24.

Auditors

These Accounts have been audited by the National Audit Office on behalf of the Comptroller and Auditor General at a notional cost of £130,000 for the Departments Accounts and £12,000 for the audit of the Trust Statement (see Note 3 on pages 139 to 140). No other external audit services were commissioned by the CPS.

Stephen Parkinson
Director of Public Prosecutions
12 July 2024