Law -
Crown Prosecution Service
Around
1,800 defendants a year in London charged with
serious offences including robbery and supplying
heroin are set free by magistrates because the
Crown Prosecution Service is not ready to go
ahead with their committals on time. The
disclosure comes in a report from the CPS's
independent inspectorate, which concludes:
"It is of major concern for the criminal
justice system and victims in particular that
cases are not being prosecuted to a proper
conclusion." Cases can be reinstated but few
are, the report says. Defendants over a
three-month period had been charged with crimes
including assault, robbery, burglary, supply and
possession of hard drugs, theft and handling,
indecent assault, blackmail and deception.
The inspectors found "disturbing levels of
attrition of serious cases which were occurring
through committals being discharged when they are
not ready, and cases being dropped because of
witnesses not attending court". In other
parts of the country very few committals were
discharged. Stephen Wooler, the chief inspector,
said a plan of action "must address concerns
about the handling of casework, in particular the
lack of grip on cases and the high number which
fail simply because the prosecution is not
ready". The inspection of CPS London found
"serious shortcomings in casework which were
founded on weaknesses both in procedures and
systems and in management".
Many issues could only be addressed by "a
substantial development and strengthening of both
senior and middle management, accompanied by some
structural changes". The inspectors said
that correspondence or material sent by police
was not linked to files, and little was done to
chase outstanding material, such as committal
files from police. In some instances there were
insufficient lawyers to send to police stations
to review files, or cover courts in which new
cases appeared. In many cases inspectors found
the police were at fault for failing to supply a
committal file or supplying it too late, or
submitting a file lacking crucial evidence.
The inspectors say the numbers of discharged
cases are thought to be increasing. At the time
of the inspection earlier this year, CPS London
was "in something of a crisis". More
than 50 lawyers had left and staff had to be
seconded from across the country. A large part of
the advocacy in magistrates courts was being done
by inexperienced barristers and solicitors in
private practice. The situation was exacerbated
because the area thought it had overspent its
budget when it was underspent by £1m.
Kris Venkatasami, the national convenor for the
CPS section of the FDA, the senior civil
servants' union, said: "It was chaos,
absolute crisis at the time. These are issues
we've been highlighting for the last 18 months.
We believe there should be a major investigation
into how the area mishandled its budget. My
members are doing their professional job but
they're struggling because of appalling
managerial error." A CPS spokeswoman said:
"We accept the recommendations, which
highlight some serious problems, though the
inspectors do acknowledge the hard work of staff
and good prosecution decisions. We will be
producing a comprehensive action plan by
January."
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