Crown Prosecution Service Annual Report and Resource Accounts 2008-09

Crown Prosecution Service Annual Report and Resource Accounts 2008-09 The Crown Prosecution Service Annual Report and Resource Accounts 2008-09 Annual Report and Resource Accounts for the period April 2008 - March 2009 From the Director of Public Prosecutions to the Attorney General Resources Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000. Departmental Report presented to the House of Commons by Command of Her Majesty Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 9 July 2009 HC446 LONDON : The Stationery Office £26.60 © Crown Copyright 2009 The text in this document (excluding the Royal Arms and other departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the document specified. Where we have identified any third party copyright material, you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. For any other use of this material please write to Office of Public Sector Information, Information Policy Team, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU or e-mail: [email protected] ISBN: 9780102961966 The Crown Prosecution Service Annual Report and Resource Accounts 2008-09 Contents Director’s letter to the Attorney General 02 - 03 Introduction 04 - 05 Summary of performance and achievements 06 - 07 CSR 2007 progress on delivery 08 - 13 Improving performance in the magistrates’ courts 14 - 15 Completing and embedding the Advocacy Strategy 16 Focusing support to victims and witnesses 17 - 21 Playing its part in achieving the agreed PSA targets for 2008-11 22 - 27 Restructuring the delivery model to improve performance 28 - 29 Ensuring that the CPS leads and manages well to get the best from all CPS people, and that it engages with them, its partners and communities to improve its service 30 - 35 Resource Accounts 36 - 93 Annexes A - M 94 - 130 Director's letter to the Attorney General 2 I am pleased to report to you on the performance The vast majority of people who come into contact and continuing transformation of the Crown with the CPS do so in the magistrates’ courts, where Prosecution Service during 2008-09. our core business activity takes place. Through the embedding of the Optimum Business Model The last 12 months have seen the Service become (OBM); the roll-out of a less bureaucratic approach increasingly confident in its ability to play a role at to simple cases between ourselves and the police; the centre of the criminal justice system. I joined and the continued work with the magistrates’ courts the Crown Prosecution Service in November to improve the flow of cases through the system, 2008 because I believed in the journey that my we have been able to improve our performance in predecessor Ken Macdonald had begun. The this key arena further. During 2009-10, we will be challenge for me is to complete this transformation looking at how the lessons learnt from OBM in the successfully, and to establish the Crown Prosecution magistrates’ courts can help us improve the way we Service firmly as a modern public prosecution service work in the Crown Court. that delivers justice for all. Our responsibility for charging for all but the most The continued development of our Advocacy minor offences continues to provide the public Strategy sees us now able not only to handle more with improved justice. The number of cases that cases in-house, but increasingly those of the most are discontinued has fallen by nearly a third since serious and complex nature. The appointment of we assumed responsibility for charging, while the our first Queen’s Counsel this year showed that number of successful convictions has risen to more the quality of our advocacy has been recognised as than 87%. During 2009-10, we will be working being at the very highest level. The development with our police colleagues to provide a charging of our Complex Casework Units and specialist service that fully utilises the developments in casework divisions, has enabled us to attract some information technology and fits the changing of the most gifted self-employed advocates to nature of crime. join us – further consolidating our position as an employer of choice for both newly-qualified and Crime has changed; the approach to combating experienced lawyers. criminal behaviour has changed; and society’s expectations of its prosecution service have The merger of the CPS with the Revenue and changed. All of this has seen the role of the CPS Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) will see our expand since its inception in 1986. In addition to specialist casework capabilities increase significantly our charging responsibilities, and increased role at over the next 12 months. We will look to bring court, we now have a role to play in the community together and embed the best of both organisations that could not have been envisaged five years ago, and establish improved and strengthened HQ let alone 20. Our work on community engagement casework divisions that will, for the first time, has been a model of its kind, and during 2009-10 include our Fraud Prosecution Service. we will continue to seek ways in which we can better serve local communities. The Crown Prosecution Service Annual Report and Resource Accounts 2008-09 3 Victims and witnesses are, and will continue to be, a key priority for me and the CPS. I welcomed the recent independent report looking at services to victims and witnesses. At the most senior level, the last year has seen us driving up performance in contacting victims and witnesses. The report recognised that our contact with this key group had “improved markedly”, but I also acknowledge and support the report’s call for even more to be done. I have commissioned work that will firmly establish a quality framework so that we can be confident that every contact that we have meets a standard that we expect and have described. Next year will about standards across the CPS; standards that focus our attention on the service that we provide to the public and less on the numbers that sit beneath it. We exercise powers on behalf of the public. We deliver a public service, and the public is entitled to expect its public prosecution service to undertake all its work in line with the highest possible standards. Completing the transformation of the CPS and RCPO into a modern public prosecution service by adopting core quality standards requires confidence and it requires vision. I know that the staff of both organisations have the commitment and energy to make this happen, and with my senior management team I will ensure that they have the framework, skills and knowledge to do so. KEIR STARMER QC Director of Public Prosecutions Crown Prosecution service 4 INTRODUCTION Organisation The CPS is headed by the Director of Public Role Prosecutions (DPP), Keir Starmer QC, who took up The CPS was set up in 1986 as an independent office on 1 November 2008. For the period from 1 authority to prosecute criminal cases investigated by April to 31 October, the DPP was Ken Macdonald the police in England and Wales. In undertaking this QC. The Director is superintended by the Attorney role, the CPS: General, who is accountable to parliament for the Service. The Chief Executive is Peter Lewis, who is s Advises the police during the early stages of responsible for running the business on a day-to- investigations; day basis, and for equality and diversity, human s Determines the appropriate charges in all but resources, finance, business information systems, minor cases; and business development. This allows the Director s Keeps all cases under continuous review and to concentrate on prosecution, legal issues and decides which cases should be prosecuted; criminal justice policy. s Prepares cases for prosecution in court and CPS Areas prosecutes these cases with in-house advocates The CPS has 42 Areas across England and Wales. or instructs agents and counsel to present Each Area is headed by a Chief Crown Prosecutor them; and (CCP), who is responsible for the delivery of a high s Provides information and assistance to victims quality prosecution service to their local community. and prosecution witnesses. A “virtual” 43rd Area, CPS Direct, is also headed by Code for Crown Prosecutors a CCP and provides out-of-hours charging decisions to the police. Three casework divisions, based Before charging a defendant and proceeding with in headquarters (HQ), deal with the prosecution a prosecution, Crown Prosecutors must first review of serious organised crime, terrorism and other each case against the Code for Crown Prosecutors specialised prosecution cases. (the Code). The Code sets out the principles the CPS applies when carrying out its work. Those principles Each CCP is supported by an Area Business Manager are whether: (ABM), and their respective roles mirror, at a local s There is enough evidence to provide a realistic level, the responsibilities of the DPP and the Chief prospect of conviction against each defendant Executive. Corporate administrative support to Areas on each charge; and, if so, is provided through a network of business centres. s A prosecution is needed in the public interest. Forty-one Areas are part of a 14-Group structure The Director is under a statutory duty to publish the (excluding CPS London). The Groups have a specific Code for Crown Prosecutors. The fifth edition of remit to deliver measurable improvements across the Code was published on 16 November 2004 and a range of functions. Each Group is overseen by a reflects the responsibilities of Crown Prosecutors to Group Strategy Board, chaired by a Group Chair, who determine charges.

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