CPS Board meeting minutes - October 2020
Monday 26 October, 13:00-16:00
Microsoft Teams Meeting
Members
Monica Burch (C), Max Hill QC, Rebecca Lawrence, Mark Hammond, Simon Jeffreys, Caroline Wayman
Guests
Simon Jeal, Anita Misra, Gregor McGill, Sue Hemming, Graham Ritchie, Helen Starkey
Secretariat
Head of Private Office, Board Secretariat
Item 1: Minutes of the Last Meeting and Matters Arising
1. The Board reviewed and agreed the minutes of the last meeting.
1.1 Progress was noted against outstanding actions.
Item 2: Update from the DPP and CEO
2 The DPP provided an update on the following:
a. AGO Superintendence meeting
b. National Excellence Awards
c. Director’s Commendations
d. Strangulation Symposium
e. National Disclosure Improvement Plan Board
f. October Executive Group
g. RASSO Legal Guidance Consultation and first post-COVID-19 national data release
h. HMCPSI report on Victim Communication
i. The Royal Commission
2.1 Rebecca Lawrence, Chief Executive (RL) provided an update on the following:
a. Digital Capability, including laptops upgrades and the Director of Digital and Commercial appointment
b. Casework Quality, including prosecution capacity and staff wellbeing
c. Strategic Partnerships, including ongoing police engagement on the rape action plan, community engagement and community accountability forums
d. Risk Register
e. RASSO Legal Guidance Consultation
f. Internal Governance Audit
g. Common Platform
2.2 The Board asked how the recent RASSO consultation launch differed from previous approaches
2.3 The Board commended the teams involved in the RASSO consultation.
2.4 The Board discussed the HMCPSI report on Victim Communication and Victim Liaison Units, noting the need to spread best practice whilst looking at longer-term measures which could include user-led service design.
Item 3: Corporate Performance Report
3 Anita Misra, Head of Strategic Financial Planning, (AM) provided an update on the following:
a. Summary of income and expenditure
b. Backlog trends by Magistrates Court and Crown Court
c. Key data on trials, including increased vacated trials
d. Pre-Charge Workflow and Volumes for RASSO
e. Workforce, particularly recruitment
3.1 The Board asked whether the right data indicators were being reviewed.
3.2 The Board asked for detail on the backlog prioritisation method being used and for a view on the benefits of triage according to impact of delay by offence.
3.3 The Board noted that alongside ongoing prioritisation of resource, including through the interim charging protocol, external factors necessitate ongoing engagement with partners as a key backlog management approach.
Item 4: COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme
4 Simon Jeal, Deputy Director in Operations, (SJeal) provided an update on:
a. Ongoing work to develop a pressures dashboard which overlays qualitative data
b. COVID-19 impact on ability to deploy staff
c. Potential impact of proposals on training and compliance and assurance work
d. Updates to the data since the paper was drafted
4.1 The Board noted the importance of engaging with partners.
4.2 On the Future Working Programme piece, SJeal provided an update on:
a. Ongoing focus on COVID-19-secure offices
b. Recent endorsement of work on protected characteristics including points to take forward on hidden protected characteristics
c. Remote Advocacy Strategy
d. Legal Leadership Review
e. Beyond Smarter Working
Item 5: Risk Register Update
5 Anita Misra, Head of Strategic Financial Planning, (AM) provided an update on:
a. Risks, noting those below and above tolerance
b. Mitigating actions being taken
c. The wellbeing review which aims to ensure consistency of wellbeing support available and the deployment of a wellbeing portal. An item on wellbeing risk is planned to come to November Executive Group
5.1 The Board noted that the RASSO risk was brought within tolerance.
5.2 The Board thanked the team for their work developing the Risk Register, commending it as a professional product embedded in operations. The Board noted that some further work is needed to identify risk owners and expected action timelines.
5.3 The Board accepted that where there were risks outside tolerance, the cause was external factors.
Item 6: Success Measures
6 Graham Ritchie, Deputy Director of Strategy and Policy, (GR) presented his paper and noted that work is underway quantifying success in relations to the dashboard success measures.
6.1 GR noted that the implementation of working groups by theme will commence following approval at October Executive Group.
6.2 GR provided an update on progress against Business Plan commitments in Q2.
6.3 The Board discussed the need for independent challenge in the business planning process, particularly where some measures were more subjective than measures used historically.
Item 7: Area Performance Report
7 Susan Hemming (SH) and Gregor McGill (GM), Directors of Legal Services, presented the paper and provided an update on:
a. Backlogs, particularly in the Crown Court and the associated impacts
b. The ongoing importance of stakeholder engagement to identify priority cases, including by the Crown Court Working Group to identify vulnerable individuals
7.1 The Board discussed;
a. The ongoing work to triage cases
7.2 The Board asked:
a. Whether trends by Area are as expected
b. How normal Area performance is being considered when reviewing
7.3 The Board thanked the Directors of Legal Services for all their hard work in difficult circumstances.
Item 8: ICE Assurance Board/NBCPA Race Disparity Report
8. Mark Hammond (MH) (in his capacity as joint chair of the ICE) provided an overview of the Inclusion and Community Engagement (ICE) Assurance Board, and the importance of the NBCPA work.
8.1 RL outlined the background to the report and noted the need for a high level of ambition on inclusion and engagement, to encompass inclusion of all protected characteristics and to work with the staff networks.
8.2 RL noted that the proposal is for full Board consideration of the NBCPA report in November once Executive Group have reviewed.
8.3 The Board raised:
a. The need for ambition whilst celebrating successes
b. The need for clarity for all staff that non-inclusive behaviours are unacceptable
c. The need to ensure stakeholders were also made aware of unacceptable behaviours for example those recently highlighted by Alexandra Wilson.
8.4 The Board asked:
a. Whether impacts of behaviour by members of the public was covered in the report
b. For clarification on the Board’s role regarding governance of the ICE Assurance Board
c. To hear from NBCPA members direct at the November substantive item
8.5 Regarding governance of the ICE Assurance Board, the Board agreed that it discharges authority to the ICE Assurance Board to hold the executive to account.
Item 9: AOB
9 Simon Jeffreys (SJ), Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, provided an update on matters discussed at the October Audit and Risk Committee (ARAC).
9.1 SJ noted that Steven Corbishley of the National Audit Office (NAO) would be moving role to be replaced by Liz Fox of NAO for the 20/21 financial year.
9.2 MH provided an update on the ARAC Whistleblowing annual report item, noting that although progress was good there was still work to do on improving staff awareness.
Secretariat
October 2020