Mr Michael Blakey

Mr Michael Blakey [email protected]

Our ref: 1778

2018 年 5 月 10 日

Dear Mr Blakey

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act request which was received on 13 May 2009. In that request you asked for the following information:

1) What percentage of prosecutions that are sent to the Crown Court are dealt with by the independent Bar who are on the prosecutions list between January-December 2008 and January-April 2009, on the Northern Circuit.

2) What was the number of cases, in the same period, of briefs sent to individual chambers specifically on the Northern Circuit.

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 creates a statutory right of access to information held by public authorities i.e. the Crown Prosecution Service. This right is to be informed whether the information requested is held by the public authority or not, and if the information exists, for it to be communicated. A public authority must reply to such a request promptly and in any event, not later than twenty working days after receipt.

The individual’s right to information is not unqualified and subject to a number of exceptions and exemptions that are contained within the Act. The majority of these exemptions are qualified, that is to say the decision whether to confirm or deny the information’s existence or to disclose the requested material, will be subject to a public interest.

The Freedom of Information Act is a public disclosure regime, not a private regime. Any information disclosed under it is thereafter deemed to be in the public domain, and therefore freely available to the general public.

I can confirm the CPS does not hold the requested information; the CPS does not record the percentage of prosecutions undertaken in-house and by the self-employed Bar or the number of briefs sent out to individual chambers.

I am able to provide you with some information in relation to graduated fee payments which may be of some interest to you. For the period January to December 2008 CPS Areas on the Northern Circuit (Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside) made 5,477

Business Information Systems Directorate 50 Ludgate Hill London EC4M 7EX T. 020 796 8000 F. 0207 796 8439

[email protected]

www.cps.gov.uk payments to the self employed Bar which included a brief fee (GFS base fee) of which 5,226 payments were made to chambers located on the Northern Circuit.

For the period January to April 2009, CPS Areas on the Northern Circuit made 1,775 payments to the self employed Bar which included a brief fee (GFS base fee) of which 1,710 payments were made to chambers located on the Northern Circuit.

I hope you find this information useful.

If you are unhappy with the decisions made in relation to your request from the Crown Prosecution Service you may ask for an internal review within two calendar months of the date of this letter. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact the Freedom of Information Unit (Appeals), 50 Ludgate Hill, London, EC4M 7EX.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Ms Kadir Information Management Unit