Criminal Justice Update

Report: 5
Date:12 July 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

This paper 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

Justice for London/Case Progression Units (CPUs)

1. Case Progression Units have been introduced in twenty-six boroughs and will be rolled out across the whole of the MPS by the end of July 2004. The CPU’s provide support, advice and supervision to uniform officers who make arrests. They quality assure all case files and promote a ‘right first time’ approach. This ensures that case files are sufficiently robust to survive the early stages of the prosecution process. This supports the national Effective Trial Management Programme. Early results are encouraging with two boroughs doubling their effective trial rate in the first quarter. Another has achieved the lowest discontinuance rate in its history, whilst cases accepted as suitable for charge in the view of the CPS have risen from 50% to 70%. From a baseline figure of 39% on the pilot sites, the number of guilty pleas at the first hearing has risen to 80% on one site, 74% on another. Convictions have risen from 65% to 90% and 84% respectively.

Justice for London / Victim and Witness Care

2. Witness Care Units (WCUs) are designed to deliver excellent victim and witness care. The units support victims and witnesses within the criminal justice process from the point of charge. The aim is to improve public confidence in the CJS by establishing a single point of contact, having individual needs assessments, making regular contacts and providing updates. The WCU's have now been rolled out to twenty-four boroughs and will be on all thirty-three by the end of July 2004. These units exceed the minimum requirements of the Governments’ ‘No Witness, No Justice’ programme. £2.2 million per year for the next three years has been secured from the Invest to Save bid to support the ‘No Witness, No Justice’ programme for the MPS. This is in addition to the £3.3 million used to fund the increase in staffing this year. The ineffective trial target in Magistrates Courts was achieved for last year across London and has now dropped below 37%. In December 2003 all witnesses in the cases listed at the Inner London Crown Court attended and the conviction rate for that month was 70%.

CPS Lawyers at the point of charge

3. Lawyers at the point of charge (in police stations) have been introduced in all the boroughs under the shadow scheme. This ensures that the correct charges are laid and the evidence has been secured. Self-assessments have started in preparation for the statutory scheme to ‘go live’ across London in October 2004.

Pre-trial Reviews

4. In Stratford Magistrates Court in Newham borough the Court, CPS, police and defence solicitors have been piloting pre-trial reviews (PTR). PTR’s are conducted by the clerk of the court and engage the reviewing CPS lawyer (rather than presenting lawyer) and defence lawyer to reduce court time. This has led to the court being able to release up to ten officers per week who are able to go on patrol rather than sitting around in courts.

5. The effective trial rate has risen from 25% to 67% for those cases that have been subject of a PTR; it would have been higher had the court been able to find time for the cases. The LCJB have agreed to implement the PTR’s in all the London magistrates’ courts and this is included in its 2004/5 Delivery Plan as a priority.

NSPIS Custody and Case Preparation

6. The project management and implementation of the NSPIS case and custody IT programme into every borough within the MPS by April 2006 continues. This will speed up case preparation time, provide a seamless transfer of case files and significantly expedite court results. This project is the second largest within the MPS, only C3i being bigger. The pilot site, Newham, went live on the 16 of June 2004, no major problems so far.

Performance

7. The LCJB recognized early on that there was a requirement for performance management. The MPS and CPS have embarked on a Joint Performance Management programme which consists of visiting each of twenty-eight Borough Criminal Justice Groups twice within twelve month and holding these groups to account for their performance. It has been encouraging to see the local GLMCA regional managers supporting the process and engaging in it for the last stages of the JPM’s. It is believed the performance culture within London is changing to better reflect the priorities of the LCJB. This process is significantly more effective when contemporary data is available. Westminster, Lambeth and Holborn are due to be visited over the next two weeks.

7. Offences Brought to Justice (OBTJ) is a cross agency target and consists of 75% conviction data. Historically this has been a difficult indicator to collect data on. Current measurement relies on the thirty GLMCA Courts across London and the five Crown Courts submitting their conviction data for us to process before passing it to the Home Office. This is time consuming and results in a six-month data lag; it is being urgently addressed. Since September 2003 there has been a marked increase in the number of detections from 13% in September 2003 to 18.8% in March 2004.

8. Predictive analysis indicates that these detections will result in an increase in conviction. This is based our professional experience using a reliable proxy indicator linking sanctioned detections to OBTJ. The down turn has been arrested but the trend is not as positive as expected. The end of 2003/2004 figures will be available by the 9 July 2004. Thereafter the data lag will be days rather than weeks. A method is being devised that will provide borough data from the 1 April 2004 onwards.

9. Cases handled by the CPS in the third quarter of 2003/4 the increased by 16% on the previous quarter. For the fourth quarter there was a further increase on the third quarter of 13%. This should be reflected in the updated OBTJ figures. Guilty pleas in Magistrates Courts have risen in the last quarter by 11.9% (3017 cases). In the last three months of 2003/4 guilty pleas in magistrates Courts and Crown Court averaged 10,068 for each month; the target is 12,000. This does not take into account proven cases, cautions, PND’s and TIC’s which will be added by the Home Office.

Discontinuance in Courts by CPS

Trend down to total of 10.76% Magistrates Court in January 2004 (target 9.95%) from high of 16% in March 2001.

Crown Court trend is upwards at 19(%), target 14.87% from 22% in September 2002

Discharged committals

Now significantly below 2004/5 target (104 cases per month)

Cracked and Ineffective Trials.

Magistrates Courts steady at 36% (April 04), target 30% - High 42% (August 2003).

Centralised Traffic Criminal Justice Unit

10. This sub-project is on track.

11. The rollout programme covering all traffic prosecutions for South-East of London was implemented during April 2004 and is operating effectively. The first SE London borough cases are due to be laid at Magistrates Courts in July.

12. Implementation for the rest of London is planned as follows:-

• November 2004 - Central & North East Regions;
• February 2005 North West & South West.

13. Agreement with the GLMCA to integrate the court structure is in an advanced state.

14. The CPS have acquired one-and-a half of the two additional floors of Marlowe House to support centralisation. Negotiations to secure the final half floor are advanced.

15. The Traffic Reporting and Investigation System (TRIS) is being developed and is on schedule for introduction in November 2004.

Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs)

16. There has been a steady growth in the use of PND’s across the MPS with the monthly average now close to 600. These continue to be mostly given to persons in custody and the payment rates have remained constant. It is planned to extend the use of PND’s to 16-17 year olds in September 2004.

17. The use of PND’s has been included in the training of ‘safer neighbourhood’ officers as it supports the local concern over anti-social behaviour. The use of PND’s has been endorsed in recommendations from the TP Borough Commanders workshop.

18. Discussions continue with the Home Office concerning the use of this disposal option for additional offences such as cannabis possession, theft (shoplifting) and minor criminal damage. The Home Office appear to be progressing towards introducing PND’s to 10-15 year olds before the end of the year. In these cases, it is proposed that if the penalty payment is not made within the 21 day suspended enforcement period, liability for payment of the fine will be transferred from offenders to their parents.

Probation Service

19. A recently completed workshop with the Probation Service has identified that both agencies hold information that could be used to track persistent and prolific offenders across London. Working more closely together would enable the information to be used more effectively in planning the re-entry of these individuals into communities. The Probation Service are planning to become integrated into Operation Emerald.

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 authors: Detective Chief Superintendent, Mark Benbow

For more information contact:

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

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