Criminal justice update

Report: 4
Date: 8 June 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides an update on the work being carried out by the Department of Criminal Justice with the ultimate aim of bringing more offences to justice.

A. Recommendation

That Members note the contents of this report.

B. Supporting information

National Strategy for Police Information Services (NSPIS) Custody and Case Preparation

1. In a letter dated 4 May 2006, the Home Office has confirmed the release of funding by the Treasury to support the roll out of NSPIS Custody and Case Preparation nationally. The funding released by the Treasury does not fully meet overall roll out costs, and is to be supplemented by further contributions from the Home Office, Criminal Justice Information Technology (CJIT) and individual Forces. The additional contribution expected from Forces is yet to be determined and will be the subject of negotiation at a national level.

2. Following the announcement regarding funding the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and Sungard Vivista (SGV) are finalising preparations for contract signature.

3. The MPS NSPIS project team, Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) and SGV continue to prepare for the planned roll out of NSPIS Custody and Case Preparation across the MPS commencing in September 2006. The roll out preparation encompasses work in respect of business change, technical design and requirements, management information, training, implementation planning, communications, custody infrastructure works and support requirements.

Performance

4. Sanction detections

• The overall Sanction Detection rate for 2005/6 is 18.2% against the target of 16.6%.

5. Offences Brought to Justice (OBTJ)

• The OBTJ target for 2006/7 for London is 185,000. The MPS contribution has been agreed at 181,212.
• London (including British Transport Police and City of London Police) has achieved the performance year (2005/6) figure of 179,803 OBTJs against the target of 160,205.
  These are broken down as follows for the performance year to date:

Appendix 1 shows a chart demonstrating OBTJ breakdown

6. Persistent Young Offenders (PYO)

PNC Performance Results against the 71-Day Target:

• Current MPS performance is that the average arrest to sentence time for PYOs between October and December was 91.2 days.
• The London Criminal Justice Board (LCJB) are at present auditing the relevant data, therefore this figure maybe revised.
• A fuller update in regard to PYOs is at paragraphs 27-32

Current Trial management performance (March 2006)

• Ineffective Trials Magistrates’ Court 25.8%
• Effective Trials Magistrates’ Court 40.4%
• Ineffective Trials Crown Court 12.0% [1]
• Effective Trial Crown Court 59.5% [1]

Charts detailing this information are available in Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 [1]

Statutory Charging (charging too early)

7. Statutory charging involves the MPS and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) working together to ensure that the best evidence available is obtained and that offenders are charged with the right offence. ‘Working together’ is a key issue that requires good communication between the CPS and MPS.

8. Prosecution Team Performance Management (PTPM) is being used by the LCJB and the Joint Steering Group to monitor Criminal Justice performance, including 'charging'.

9. CPS London and Operation Emerald are holding PTPM seminars throughout May, with key CPS and MPS staff, to ensure that the benefits of PTPM are understood and that the system is properly utilised.

10. It is currently too early to determine if ‘charging too early’ is indeed an issue within London. The introduction of PTPM and the role out of the CPS Proactive Prosecutors Programme will serve to help identify where it may be happening and then to deal with it effectively.

Emerald Warrants Management System (EWMS)

11. The unconfirmed figures for the end of the financial year show a reduction of 31.3% for fail to appear warrants. On 31 March 2006, the total number of outstanding warrants for the MPS was 9,400.

12. Currently, the MPS is on course to meet the 2006/07 target of 8500 Fail to Appear (FTA) warrants. However, there is a danger that warrant reduction will slow down or indeed plateau.

13. The number of warrants entering the system is averaging at approximately 2000 a month. This is despite efforts to improve the quality of MG7s and bail decisions by custody officers. Over the coming months the EWMS Team will be using performance management to identify the weaknesses in the system in order to reduce the number of warrants issued.

14. Operation Emerald has been working with the Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) to develop a system for dealing with out of force warrants. The document is currently in draft form and has been circulated for consultation.

15. We are currently pursuing access for the City of London Police to the EWMS; however, there are outstanding issues in regard to security and vetting requirements.

16. Operation Emerald is aware that Her Majesty’s Court Service (HCMS) (Magistrates’ Court) is not currently meeting the target for notifying police of fail to appear warrants. Through the LCJB Enforcement Sub Group an IT solution is being sought that will reduce duplication of work and speed up notification.

Asset Recovery

17. The volume of confiscation orders made within London for 2005/6 is £18m [2]

Detections

Taken Into Consideration (TICs)

18. Performance on TICs continues to show a substantial improvement. This is due mainly to the efforts of Operation Emerald through training and initiatives such as ‘Wipe the Slate Clean’ which seeks to convert a single detection for one VOLUME crime, into several detections, and this has had a significant impact upon performance.

• 1 April 2004 to 11 May 2005 - 11416 offences detected by way of TIC.
• 1 April 2005 to 11 May 2006 - 18324 offences detected by way of TIC.
• This equates to a year on year increase of in excess of 60%.

19. By way of illustration Wipe-the-slate-clean has shown its impact for the months shown.

• April 2004 - 464 offences were Taken into Consideration
• April 2005 - 949 offences were Taken into Consideration
• April 2006 - 1672 offences were Taken into Consideration

Increasing detections

20. The introduction of the Corporate Emerald ‘Cannabis Warning’ Form 67 has now been published and is a stock item for MPS distribution.

21. The Detection and Investigation Team continue to deliver training and to assist BOCU staff through site visits and bespoke learning where requested. The main focus continues to be achieving an increase in Detection and OBTJ rates, through ethical use of TICs and the application of the Home Office Counting Rules.

22. The Detections Team will continue to be engaged with the Home Office on a Pathfinder project, targeting Prolific Persistent Offenders for offences ’Taken into Consideration’. This is a national pilot involving several other police areas. The MPS have committed themselves to two pilot sites, Southwark and Waltham Forest. This will be supported by the MPS ‘Wipe the Slate Clean’ initiative.

23. Training on Home Office Counting Rules now sits within the first five weeks of training that recruits receive at Hendon Initial Training School. This follows advice from the Emerald Detections Team; the ‘White Notes’ have been updated accordingly.

No Witness, No Justice

24. Witness Care Unit staff are now fully aware of all their responsibilities to victims of crime as contained within the Codes of Practice for Victims of Crime. The national Witness Management System has now been introduced into the majority of London Witness Care Units. The CPS continues to co-locate their staff within Witness Care Units. Training for Witness Care Unit staff continues and the MPS and CPS are currently working together to devise a new training package for customer care.

The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime

25. Operation Emerald continues to liaise with all link officers on Boroughs to ensure the Code is promoted to frontline staff. Operation Emerald is requesting that the link officers provide data detailing compliance with the Code. Operation Emerald is currently designing a roll out strategy for the introduction of Victim Focus Desks, which will ensure compliance with the Code.

Persistent Young Offenders (PYOs)

26. In November 2005, Operation Emerald conducted a review of criminal justice matters across 32 Borough Operational Command Units (BOCUs). This included a review of the performance with regard to the MPS commitment to the London pledge in dealing with PYOs.

27. The review covered the areas of Identification, Case Investigation, Case Management and Warrants and found that the majority of BOCUs have a clear and well-communicated policy for identifying PYOs across London; that the Criminal Justice Unit (CJU) manager is the BOCUs lead on PYOs and attends the Tracker meetings; and that the introduction of the EWMS now ensured consistency and transparency in dealing with all MPS warrants received from HMCS with priority being given to PYOs.

28. From the review the following recommendations were agreed and issued:

• To re-circulate the Service instruction on PYOs. Explaining tactically the process from cradle to grave including the MPS expectations of key roles.
• To communicate more widely within the BOCU the identity of PYOs.
• BOCUs to adopt a more robust approach for secondary Identification.
• To ensure that BOCUs are adhering to the Arrest to Charge (2 days) and Charge to Court (7 Days) targets as part of the overall 71 days joint agency target.

29. The multi agency PYO Steering Group is providing the strategic direction and has issued supportive actions to ensure that London consistently achieves the 71-day pledge. These are:

• PNC Bureau is engaged with HMCS and actively addressing data quality.
• There are now established links with OCJR and the Department of Constitutional Affairs to ensure clarity of PYO data and how it is communicated.
• British Transport Police (BTP) is a now member of the group. Historically, although the BTP input to the overall PYO figures for London has been small, a lack of a co-ordinated and robust process to manage this number has not been undertaken.
• The Premium Service Protocol is being reviewed and will continue to be the standard operating procedure, across agency, for driving the PYO pledge during the life of this group and beyond.

30. The LCJB Performance team undertook a review of the data on London’s performance with regard to the PYO target. It became clear that a minority of cases were dramatically affecting performance. This was due to the MPS practice of putting PYOs on the PNC at point of ‘first process’. However, an attempt to rationalise this data has met with opposition from the DCA.

31. A multi-agency PYO conference took place 29 March where the keynote speaker was the Solicitor General, Mike O’Brien MP. Following this forum the Solicitor General agreed to visit seven of our courts.

LCJB update

Enforcement Sub-group

32. The Enforcement Sub-Group reported on progress. The group had reviewed FTA Warrants, in particular notification of warrants in time by courts to police, and issues around defendant attendance. The Group also organised an inter-agency event to discuss defendant attendance and compliance as a wider issue.

33. It is envisaged that Enforcement and community penalties in the context of Diversion from Court will feature on the national agenda. The group have been asked to provide a full overview and delivery plan, covering all aspects of its Enforcement remit.

LCJB Implementation Plan

34. The proposed Implementation Plan, in answer to the Prime Ministers Delivery Unit and OCJR review of the London Criminal Justice System was agreed. The main themes will be ‘Getting cases right first time’, ‘Matching Resources to Demand’, ensuring ‘Right People, Right Place, Right Time’, ‘Diversion from Court Business’, and ‘Many Agencies, One Service’. The Review and Plan will go to ministers and the National Criminal Justice Board (NCJB) in May.

Inside Justice Week

35. Inside Justice Week, which will take place on 18-25 November, is a nationwide event that aims to open up and explain the workings of the criminal justice system. The LCJB view this as an excellent opportunity to boost public confidence and are determined to take the lead to make this year’s event the most successful yet. The target audiences for this year’s event are young people, the elderly and Black and Minority Ethnic communities.

36. At the April LCJB meeting it was agreed that ‘champions’ would be identified from each agency to co-ordinate Inside Justice Week. An inaugural meeting will be held on 5 June to discuss what activities and events will take place for London. These will be reported to a subsequent PPRC. The LCJB is aware of Richard Sumray’s offer of the MPA’s support and will include this in their deliberations.

List of abbreviations

BOCU

Borough Operational Command Unit

BTP

British Transport Police

CJIT

Criminal Justice Information Technology

CJU

Criminal Justice Unit

CPS

Crown Prosecution Service

EWMS

Emerald Warrant Management System

FTA

Fail To Appear

HCMS

Her Majesty’s Court Service

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

NCJB

National Criminal Justice Board

NSPIS

National Strategy for Police Information Services

NWNJ

No Witness No Justice

OBTJ

Offences Bought to Justice

OCJR

Office of Criminal Justice Reform

PITO

Police Information Technology Organisation

PTPM

Prosecution Team Performance Monitoring

PYO

Persistent Young Offender

SGV

SunGard Vivista

TIC

Taken into consideration

C. Race and equality impact

There are no new equality or diversity implications at this time.

D. Financial implications

There are currently no financial implications.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Chief Superintendent George Clarke, Territorial Policing MPS

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback