Criminal justice update

Report: 4
Date: 4 November 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

That the report be noted.

B. Supporting information

Case Progression Units

1. Case Progression Units (CPUs) provide support and supervision for officers dealing with arrests. CPUs ensure that cases are investigated thoroughly so that the full facts are presented to the Duty Prosecutor to enable a valid charging decision to be made. This ensures that the right charges are preferred. CPUs also ensure that cases are properly prepared and that case papers are submitted to a high standard which meet the needs of the CPS and Courts. CPUs are now in place on every Borough Operational Command Unit (BOCU) across the MPS.

2. The Operation Emerald Implementation Team are now in the process of providing a series of five-day courses for CPU supervisors to provide support to BOCUs in terms of staff being lost from CPUs for reasons such as transfer and promotion. CID and specialist staff on BOCUs are also being incorporated into this training, with a view to moving to an Accredited Case Supervision system in 2005. We want to be in a position in April 2005 that no case papers will be passed to a duty prosecutor unless they have been quality assured by a trained supervisor. A further series of courses is being planned for the beginning of 2005.

3. Performance measurement of the CPU system continues to be developed, which will focus on improving the attrition rate between arrest and charge, and increasing the number of first-time guilty pleas and guilty verdicts.

Victim and witness care

4. Witness Care Units (WCU) are set up to deliver excellent Victim and Witness care. They currently support victims and witnesses involved in the Criminal Justice process from the point where a defendant has been charged with an offence. Witness Care Units are now in place on each of the 32 Boroughs and Heathrow. Each WCU offers:

• A single point of contact for victims and witnesses
• Individual needs assessments
• Individual risk assessments
• Tailored interventions
• Referral to relevant support agencies
• Regular contact with victims and witnesses
• Regular updates
• Court warnings
• Collation and dissemination of dates to avoid
• Notification of the result

5. Customer satisfaction surveys have been sent to Internal Consultancy Group for evaluation. Initial results show over 80% of victims and witnesses were either satisfied or very satisfied with the level of service provided by Witness Care Units. A more detailed evaluation will be available in the next few weeks.

6. The National No Witness, No Justice (NW, NJ) project team, CPS London, City of London police and the MPS have agreed funding for the London area. The spend profile has been has been submitted to the National NW, NJ team. This funding will allow an additional MPS member of staff and a CPS worker in every WCU. The funding finishes in March 2007.

7. The refresh programme for the National No Witness, No Justice minimum requirements continues. The first three seminars held for the WCU managers and nominated deputies have received positive feedback.

8. Arrangements are in hand to set up a Witness Care Unit at the centralised Traffic Criminal Justice Unit.

CPS lawyers at the point of charge

9. CPS lawyers are now based in all boroughs. It is expected that London will migrate to the statutory scheme on the provisional date of 31 October, which is the final date set by the Government for police priority areas. The CPS will be the charging authority in the majority of criminal cases.

10. The duty prosecutors are currently giving 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday cover. Out of hours CPS Direct authorise charges. CPS Direct is now operating throughout London giving police 24 hour access to a CPS lawyer for charging decision. There have been a few minor issues, which are being resolved. The main concern of the system failing due to lack of sufficient lawyers has not been realised and in the main the service is satisfactory.

Effective trial management programme

11. The aim of the Effective Trial Management Programme (ETMP) is to reduce the number of ineffective trials by improving case preparation and progression from point of charge to the start of the trial or earlier disposal by:

• Providing greater clarity on the roles of staff within CJS agencies.
• Introducing Case Progression Officers in CPS, MPS, Magistrates Courts and Crown Courts.
• Encouraging the defendant’s attendance at court.
• More effective case management.

12. It is envisaged that 12 Local Implementation Teams will be established – one for each London area Crown Court and its feeder magistrates’ courts. These will be headed by a representative from the Court Service or Greater London Magistrates’ Courts Authority (GLMCA) and will include CPS and MPS representatives.

13. There will be a central support team with representatives from Operation Emerald overseeing the implementation of Effective Trial Management Programme (ETMP) throughout London. Under the current London-wide roll out programme:

• Inner London Crown Court will have completed implementation by December 2004.
• Middlesex Guildhall, Woolwich, Wood Green and Snaresbrook Crown Court Areas will commence implementation in January 2005 with the remaining courts following during 2005.

NSPIS custody and case preparation

14. The National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS) is a long term programme set up by the Home Office and ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) with the aim of providing common police IT applications for England and Wales. The Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) oversees the business and policy aspects of NSPIS. PITO is a public body set up to develop IT support with the police. It includes representatives from ACPO, the Home Office and local authorities. Among its responsibilities are the supply of information from the Police National Computer (PNC), managing the Police National Network (PNN) and the National Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (NAFIS).

Implementation project

15. The Newham pilot is now complete and Case and Custody are both operating as a live NSPIS site. The review process has started with initial work on the Training Needs Analysis completed, a communication review started and the Internal Consultancy Group conducting an independent review of the pilot.

16. It is not currently known when the rollout will start as Vivista will not start to build the system until PITO have placed an order with them. PITO are unwilling to place the order until the MPS formally accepts the system but the MPA require full costings in order to make the decision. PITO are unable to provide this information until after the Home Office Criminal Justice Information Technology funding review, which is due in December.

17. As a result, the MPS rollout cannot now be completed within the deadlines set by the Home Office and this means the MPS will be liable for all rollout costs incurred after 31 March 2006. These additional costs could increase as time passes and are subject of separate discussion within the MPA finance committee.

18. There are three issues that need to be resolved before the MPS can rollout Case and Custody.

• Automatic generation of arrest/summons number
• Import failures arising from the use of quick address
• Electronic transfer of files to CPS.

19. Technical solutions are likely to be available to all the issues in future versions of the software available early in 2005, with short-term fixes in the meantime. However, the issue of CPS acceptance of electronic files has not been resolved and work continues, both nationally and in London, to seek a solution.

Performance

20. The performance team has been working with London Criminal Justice Performance team to establish a single data flow. It is also planned to look at the method whereby performance is published by CPS, LCJB and the MPS to ensure there is a cross agency single approach to performance measurement.

21. Contact has also been made with the National Criminal Defence Service, which provides duty solicitors for police stations. The aim is to determine if there is any opportunity to engage the defence in performance targeting and related issues.

Offences brought to justice (OBTJ): London

22. The level of offences brought to justice for July-04 (133,550 estimated) is the highest since measurement was introduced in 2001/02. This represents a 9% increase and if this positive trend continues the MPS will be on track to exceed the MPS target for 2004/05.

23. Good work has been done by Operation Emerald in co coordinating the activities from GLMCA in providing the information and PIB processing it and sending it to Home Office.

Definitions

• Trial – a trial includes all hearings listed ‘for trial’ and Newton Hearings (trial of an issue). A trial excludes a Pre-Trial Review (PTR). Non CPS prosecuted trials should be counted.
• Cracked trial - on the trial date, the defendant offers acceptable pleas or the prosecution offers no evidence. A cracked trial requires no further trial time.
• Ineffective trial - on the trial date expected progress is not made due to action or inaction by one or more of the prosecution, the defence or the court and a further listing for trial is required.

Ineffective trials in the Mags Courts London area for all reasons, April 2002-March 2005

24. London’s Ineffective trials rate is now at 34.3%.

25. This reduction is consistent and the trend continues to be downward. There is an even greater reduction in the rate for Crown Courts (27% in August 2003 to 19% in August 2004).

26. Some of the benefits of this are: More effective trials creates greater confidence in the CJ system, witness not being inconvenienced by unnecessary visits to court and officers spend less time at court being more readily available for operational deployment.

Discontinuances

27. There has been a reduction in the number of cases discontinued from 13.5% to 10.4% (Jan-04 to July-04). One of the benefits of this is public confidence in the CJ system, public expectation being manager earlier by lawyers at police stations with direct contact with victims, witness more lightly to attend court in the future. Police officers only being extracted to those cases where there is a realistic chance of success. There is less officers’ time being spent on subsequent enquires post charge. There is potential to re-deploy staff from there ‘remedial’ role to the front end of the process.

Cracked trial rate

28. This is no longer monitored, as it is not a good indicator of performance. It incorporates the remainder of the trials.

Persistent young offenders

29. Performance for July 2004 has been issued by PA Consultants. London results are:

• MPS Arrest to Sentence – 83 days. Seven cases caused the MPS to miss the 71 day target.
• The MPS has 61% of its Magistrates Court cases being dealt with within 71 days.
• The Crown Court average is 163 days for 18 cases

Penalty notices for disorder

30. Steady growth in the use of Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs) continues across the MPS. The total number of PNDs issued July-04 was 1,400, of this number approx 800 contributed to OBTJ. In November 2004, further offences will be able to be disposed of using PNDs, of particular note is summary theft and criminal damage, which are both Offences Brought to Justice.

Warrants database

31. The Project is currently on target to meet the November 04 ‘Go Live’ target. South Wales Police have been authorised to make a number of amendments to the database to ensure it is MPS compliant and MPS training issues are currently being addressed. The system will provide a standard MPS capacity to manage and monitor warrants.

Restorative justice

32. Lewisham and Haringey boroughs commenced phase one of a Restorative Justice Research Project on the 21 July 2004. This is purely a research project at this stage. The project team is using Conditional Cautions and now Simple Cautions. The aim of the project is to examine what effect RJ has on offenders subsequent criminality, compared to the prosecution of offenders at court. The project team is currently working with ‘bailed’ cases on both of the above boroughs. It is hoped that they will provide additional referrals.

33. The team is also working with the CPS and Home Office, to examine whether it is possible to take a more liberal interpretation of the Conditional Caution criteria. If this is possible, then more referrals should follow.

Centralised Traffic Criminal Justice Unit

34. The Centralised Traffic Criminal Justice Unit is being set up to deal with traffic prosecutions from all MPS Boroughs and Heathrow. The unit comprises police and CPS staff based at Marlowe House.

35. The rollout programme covering traffic prosecutions for South-East of London was implemented during April 2004 and is operating effectively. The first SE London borough cases were laid at Greenwich Magistrates Courts in July.

36. Implementation for the rest of London is on course as follows:

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

37. The agreement with the GLMCA to integrate the court structure is proceeding.

38. A computerised Traffic Reporting and Investigation System (TRIS), which is being developed, will not be introduced in November 2004 as previously reported. At present the Department of Information (DOI) are in the process of short listing companies to invite tenders to deliver the system. Introduction is now expected to take place mid 2005

Probation Service

39. Holborn BOCU has been identified as the pilot site for co-location of Probation staff with Witness Care Units.

40. Meetings have been held with London Probation and the Project Initiation Document is still in production.

41. Further meetings have been arranged to progress this project.

Street bail (bail elsewhere than at a police station)

42. The review reported in the September paper was based on date for the period February to June. Data covering a further two months together with details of the gender and ethnicity of all those granted street bail have been obtained and data has now been obtained. The details covering the six month period from 23 February 2004 are included below together with the previously reported information.

Background

43. The benefits of ‘street bail’ derive from being able to complete aspects of the investigation and other preparations before the arrested person answers bail and thereby reduce the period for which detention is necessary to complete the investigation when the person answers bail. In some cases it may be possible to dispose of the matter before the return date and cancel the bail requirement, in others where a formal taped interview is needed, advance preparations allow the interview to take place without delay.

44. From the outset, police forces in England and Wales have been slow to implement the provisions, which came into force on 20 January 2004. The major concerns were, and still are, being able to correctly identify an arrested suspect 'on the street', assessing whether an arrested suspect would surrender to custody and having to accept the risk that some will not, determining whether deferring the 'investigation' would provide operational benefits; and the need for effective administrative monitoring and support systems.

45. Opportunities for arresting officers 'on the street' to check and confirm an arrested person's identity and suitability for street bail are limited. The best opportunities arise most commonly in 'shoplifting' cases' where the 'victim' shop provides a secure location for the officer to make the necessary enquiries. Another occasion is when the arrested person is taken direct to hospital from the place of arrest ‘in the street’. In these cases, ‘street bail’ can provide savings by removing the need to maintain a guard at hospital or to keep checking with the hospital to see if a guard is necessary.

Current MPS position

46. To date, the only Borough where ‘street bail’ is regularly used is Harrow. Here two officers from the Crime and Disorder Team act as the ‘Street Bail Unit’ to operate and manage its day to day use. Introduction was prompted by a desire to reduce the burden on custody facilities by those arrested for ‘shoplifting’.

47. Other Boroughs report very limited use, for the sort of reasons described in 1 above.

48. Harrow has proved that benefits can only be realised if significant efforts are put in to monitoring and supervision generally and into systems for dealing with arrested persons when they attend or when they fail to attend.

49. In a review of ‘street bail’ for a six-month period from 23 February, Harrow has identified the benefits that can be achieved. After a visit to Harrow on 16 July 2004, Home Office representatives were favourably impressed by the efforts made and the results obtained so far. A presentation covering the full six month period was given to the Home Office and other forces at a conference in September.

50. The key features and findings can be summarised as follows:

• Total persons arrested for theft-shoplifting: 308
• Number arrested and granted ‘street bail’: 82
• Average period in custody at police station reduced from 5h 30m to 1h 41m. (No need for arrested person to be placed in a cell.
• Estimated annual cost savings based on police time: £17,800 (based on rates of pay).

51. The review also identified issues relevant to promoting the use of street bail. These included legislative changes concerning taking photographs and fingerprints ‘on the street’ before release. These matter are under consideration by the Home Office. Another proposal was to allow the attendance of ‘duty solicitor’ to be arranged before the suspect attends the station. This matter is being taken up with the Legal Services Commission.

52. The tables below show a breakdown of those persons detained under this scheme according to gender and ethnicity. The ethnicity categories used here are the ‘primary’ ones shown on the MPS custody computer system. Further activity is currently being undertaken to produce a more detailed breakdown according to ‘self – defined ethnicity’.

Ethnicity data (total arrests (theft – shoplifting) = 308)

Gender data for those granted street bail after arrest

Age data for those granted street bail after arrest

Disposals for those granted street bail

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

The finance issues are highlighted in the NSPIS update.

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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