Criminal Justice update

Report: 10
Date: 22 April 2004
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. Recommendations

Members to note the contents of this report

B. Supporting information

1. (The 'Justice for London' project has now evolved into Operation Emerald with separate 'Case Progression Unit (CPU) and Victim and Witness Support Unit (VWSU) strands. These are shown in the headings below.)

Justice for London / Case Progression Units

2. Case Progressions Units (CPU) are being established to provide pre charge supervision to ensure that:

• Case disposal decisions are taken at the earliest possible stage based on a thorough investigation of the offence, in consultation with the CPS; and
• Prosecutions are supported by the provision of timely and comprehensive case files which reflect the requirements of the CPS.

3. Since February staff have been trained and CPUs set up on Tower Hamlets, Haringey, Camden, Islington and Westminster Boroughs.

4. In April we expect to roll out to Barking and Dagenham, Richmond, Barnet, Harrow, Bexley and Bromley.

5. Work is progressing to establish the secure e-mail link between the MPS and the CPS

Justice for London / victim and witness care

6. Victim and Witness Support Units are now in place on Ealing and Wandsworth. All the ‘Safer Streets’ Boroughs are now covered. The April roll out will continue with implementation on Harrow, Barnet, Barking and Dagenham, Richmond, Bexley and Bromley Boroughs.

7. Lambeth and Southwark continue to show encouraging results with a 100% witness attendance at Inner London Crown Court reported for the month of December.

CPS lawyers at the point of charge

8. All MPS Boroughs now have access to a duty prosecutor 9-5 Monday to Friday. This has been completed within the timescales set by the Prime Minister’s office.

9. We now need to complete a programme of self assessment on at least half of the charging sites to ensure we can meet the criteria for the statutory charging process, the schedule is attached at Appendix 1. In order to meet these criteria, the MPS is scheduled to 'go live' with CPS direct during May. The time scales are very tight.

10. The statutory scheme will commence in the MPS in three parts in line with the London CPS areas. Two will start in July and one in August. At this stage there is no reason to believe that this cannot be achieved.

CPS direct

11. Details of the usage of CPS direct at the two pilot MPS boroughs are at Appendix 2. During February and until mid March, 381 cases were referred.

12. There is still some concern that the take up of the service falls below that expected when compared with the other two constabulary sites. This will continue to be monitored and work with the boroughs is being done to improve the take up.

NSPIS Custody and Case preparation

13. The training system, test system and live systems have now been set up for case preparation and a training system for custody. Case is progressing steadily towards pilot (at Newham) that, barring unforeseen delays, should start on 14 April 2004. Custody pilot is on course for start at Newham by the end of May 2004.

14. Training for Case has successfully completed its first week and will be on-going over the next six weeks; Custody training courses are being finalised with Farrow House and are intended to start in mid-May. Local implementation issues are being dealt with through the Newham Borough Implementation team; this not only includes members of the SMT at Newham and representatives of the users but also representatives from GLMCA, Stratford magistrates court and the CPS.

15. Because of delays to project implementation in Humberside the MPS has been asked by PITO to carry out Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) for Case; this has caused an unavoidable delay to our own implementation. SAT is taking place at the moment and, so far, has proved successful. Results will be known by 7 April 2004.

16. An MIS Workshop has been arranged to generate the requirement based on the both systems’ functional capabilities.

Performance

Discontinued cases

17. Magistrates Court - There has been a 22.2% reduction in the number of discontinued cases compared with 2002/03. This equates to 4503 cases.

18. Crown Court - There has been a 27.1% reduction in the number of discontinued cases compared with 2002/03. This equates to 982 cases.

Discharge committals

19. There has been a 50% reduction is the number of discharge committals, during the period April-03 (160) to Dec-03 (80).

Cracked and ineffective trials

20. The LCJB target for 2003/04 is to reduce the number of cracked and ineffective trials through prosecution failures to 10%. The current figure stands at 19.8% for Magistrates Courts and 21% Crown Courts, an improvement of approx 3.8% and 3% for Magistrates and Crown Courts respectively.

21. The ineffective trials figure stands at 18% Crown and 8.1% magistrates Court. This is a cross agency target involving the police, CPS and Courts.

Persistent Young Offenders

22. The PYO target relates the timeliness through the criminal justice system from arrest to sentencing. The target is that this should be achieved in 71 days or less. This is a cross agency target involving the police, CPS and Courts.

23. The December performance, from PA Consulting indicated that London achieved the 71 day target with a 70 day (arrest to sentence) performance.

24. Success against the target depends on the combined effort of the police, CPS and the Courts and remains elusive in London. In both February and June 2003 initial figures suggested that it had been reached but once adjusted by PA Consulting the figure went above the 71-day mark.

Warrants

25. The grading system for warrants has reduced the number of outstanding Grade A warrants by 44.5% to date.

26. There has been an 8% percentage reduction in the overall number of outstanding warrants since the beginning of the performance year. There are 14865 circulated warrants as at 1 March 2004.

27. The MPS are looking at system used by South Wales Police to manage warrants. A presentation is being arranged by DoI with a view to considering whether it could be introduced in the MPS.

London Criminal Justice Board

28. The London Criminal Justice Board (LCJB) was held on 11 March 2004. There was a presentation on domestic violence. The MPS are considering whether or not to make this a Gemstone Project.

29. A performance update was presented to the board dealing with the issues reported elsewhere in this report.

30. The board agreed to a review of data collected and an audit to be carried out to ensure it is accurate.

31. The Board are organising a Delivering Justice Workgroup on the 8th July 2004.

32. There was a presentation on diversity and disability issues by Linda Van den Hende, the Director of the MPS Strategic Disability Team.

33. The Board discussed the effect on the Offenders Brought to Justice (OBTJ) target of excluding Cannabis formal warnings in the next rolling year. There have been 24,000 cannabis offences within last year’s OBTJ.

34. The constitution of the LCJB was discussed and it was agreed that this will be written soon.

Local Borough Criminal Justice Groups

35. The LCJB performance team are to take the joint performance meetings to each Borough.

Centralised Traffic Unit

36. The first phase of rollout, covering all traffic prosecutions for the South-East of London is due to be implemented, as planned, in early April 2004.

Penalty Notices for Disorder

37. Penalty Notices for Disorder (PND) offences were introduced across the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) for adults on 1 December 2003. From January 2004, the minimum age was reduced to 16. The impact on the Final Warning Scheme of issuing PNDs to 16 and 17 year olds is now being assessed in a limited roll out 8 Boroughs. It is likely that PNDs will be extended to 16 and 17 year olds introduced across the MPS in June 2004.

38. The Home Office have indicated that further age reduction to 10 is likely before the end of the year. This is also likely to include extending liability to pay fines to parents. It is expected that the MPS will be invited to take part in piloting these changes. The MPS has suggested that diversionary work be incorporated as an alternative to such fines.

39. The Home Office are also looking to include further offences within the PND scheme. The possibilities include littering, obstructing police, common assault as well as less serious cases of theft and criminal damage.

40. The power to give PNDs has been extended to PCSOs. This is currently being implemented across the MPS by the Community Safety & Partnership Department.

Police powers to take fingerprints and DNA samples

41. With effect from 5th April 2004, the Criminal Justice Act 2003 will amend PACE to give police a discretionary power to take fingerprints and a DNA sample from any person without their consent at any time whilst they are in custody at police station provided that they have been arrested for a recordable offence.

42. The new fingerprint power aims to prevent persons whose fingerprints have been previously taken and are in the national database and who are ‘wanted’ from trying to avoid detection and cause delay simply by giving false personal details or refusing to identify themselves. It also enables such persons for whom the PNC shows ‘warning signals’ to be identified at an earlier stage. For others whose fingerprints are not in the national database, a speculative search will reveal if they are ‘wanted’ as a result of a crime scene fingerprint match.

43. A group has been set up by the Director of Forensic Services, to determine how the MPS can best deal with the expected increase in taking of fingerprints and samples and to monitor the outcomes.

C. Race and equality impact

This is an update paper and therefore there are no new equality or diversity implications at this time.

D. Financial implications

There are no financial implications contained in this paper.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Detective Chief Superintendent Benbow, MPS.

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

CPS London – Charging Self-Assessment – proposed dates

Please note that these dates are the days on which it is anticipated that the Self Assessment team will be in the police stations. They are subject to change.

Appendix 2

Advice cases referred to the CPS

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback