Criminal justice update

Report: 4
Date: 11 September 2008
By:  Assistant Commissioner Territorial Policing on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report covers current CJ performance, progress in relation to Youth Justice, Integrated Prosecution Teams (IPT) and the Beacon site of Westminster, an update on the recent Custody Inspection and the emerging issues for CJ from the Government Green Paper.

A. Recommendation

That members note the report.

B. Supporting information

Performance to date

Sanction Detections and Offences Brought to Justice (OBTJ)

1. The number of Total Notifiable Offences (TNO) is 289,741 for PYTD (performance year to date) (to July 2008) compared to 297,459 for the same period last year, giving a reduction of 7,718 (3%). The number of Sanction Detections (SD) is 75,509. Last year for the same period, there were 70,255 SDs. That is an increase of 5,254 SDs.

2. SD & OBTJ are being measured in three Tiers. Tier 1 is Most Serious Violence and Serious Sexual Assaults, Tier 2 is Serious Acquisitive Crime and Tier 3 is ‘Other’. Boroughs have bespoke targets within Tiers 1 & 2. For some offences, targets are based on SD rates whilst for others it is based on the reduction in the number of offences. Tiers 2 & 3 have overall SD rate targets. The tables below show the latest information available as of 4 August 2008.

3. Table 1 (see Appendix 1) is an extract from TP Weekly Scorecard (4/8/08) showing the latest information currently available (PYTD to 27 Jul 08). It shows the performance for Tier 2 as 11% against the target of 11.8%. For Tier 3, performance is currently 30.2% against the target of 29%.

4. There is no OBTJ target. There remain issues with obtaining accurate data for convictions from Crown Courts that can be broken down to offences, Tiers and borough level. It is expected that this will be resolved following IT changes within Her Majesty’s Court Service (HMCS) later this year. The London Criminal Justice Board (LCJB) and the Office of Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) are developing a system of producing some form of proxy measure. However, the MPS is currently awaiting detailed explanation of the methods used.

Persistent Young Offenders (PYOs)

5. The latest arrest to sentence data gives three-month average of 69.9 days (Feb to Apr 08) for cases originating from MPS charges/summonses against the stretched LCJB target for London of 65 days. This is an improvement on the last report which was 72.6 (Nov 07 to Jan 08)

6. The MPS arrest to charge target remains the same at an average of 5 days with the acceptance that this is a challenging target. Current performance against this is 8.5 days for April 08, 7.2 days for May and 5.9 days for June. This gives a quarter average of 7.2 days and demonstrates some improvement. The accuracy of trackers to monitor PYO performance was identified as an issue recently following a multi-agency exercise. The issue of the average length of time for cases dealt with at Crown Courts (225 days) compared to Magistrates Courts (55 days) also remains an issue. This is to be dealt with by an amended escalation process and ensured compliance that Plea and Case Management hearings will commence 14 days after committal (currently averaging at 36 days).

7. Other issues being pursued by the MPS are improved identification of PYOs at point of arrest via NSPIS and improved communications in relation to forensic submissions.

Effective outcomes within an agreed timescale

8. The number of MPS trials in the Magistrates Courts for PYTD (per year to date) (to June 08) is 6,823 of which 1,230 have been ineffective. This gives an Ineffective Trial Rate of 18% against a target of 19% maximum. For the same period last year there were 6,784 trials of which 1,331 were ineffective giving a rate of 19.6% The Ineffective Trial Rate in Crown Courts for London was 14.0% (PYTD to June 08) against a target of 14%. *
*Source: LCJB. Data relates to cases at the Crown Courts in London regardless of prosecuting Force or agency.

Warrants

9. Table 2 Warrant related performance, (see Appendix 1) shows the MPS performance against its targets.

10. Timeliness of warrant execution remains a challenge although there has been some improvement. In order to improve performance, an Action plan has been implemented and includes; an increased focus on the targets by Borough Commanders through inclusion of data in the new TP Borough Scorecard and more detailed performance data is available through the log-on page of Emerald Warrants Management System (EWMS); the EWMS audit process has been streamlined to focus on the receipt and tasking of Grade A warrants and a proposal to centralise warrant management within the MPS is also being explored.

Youth Justice

New Approaches to Youth Justice: LCJB Update on Progress

Executive Summary

11. Youth has been identified as one of the four priorities within the London Criminal Justice Board (CJB) Strategic Plan 2008 - 2011. The challenges are considerable. Whilst youth crime has remained relatively stable over the past 6 years, serious, violent youth crime has increased. The recent MPA Youth Scrutiny reveals that young people have a low level of confidence in the criminal justice system, are reluctant to report crime and feel that there are insufficient ‘consequences’ for those who do commit offences.

12. The London CJB Youth strategy seeks to address both serious, violent youth offending as well as keeping low-level offences out of the criminal justice system. Central to this new approach are the needs of young victims. This is in recognition of the fact that we need urgently to improve the effectiveness and impact of the support we offer to young people who have experienced victimisation, as well as responding to recent research reports which show a strong correlation between young people who have been victims of crime and those who go on to offend. By improving our support to young victims, we can directly impact on youth crime prevention.

13. The new Youth strategy, entitled ‘Making youth justice work better’ represents the first occasion that London CJB partners have come together to develop an end to end, cross CJS response to addressing youth crime in the capital. It enables us to move beyond the process measures of the PYO pledge, to a more strategic, outcome-focused model.

14. In October 07, a London CJB Youth Working Group was established to develop and test out new approaches to making youth justice work better across London’s CJS agencies. Chaired by the CEO of the London CJB, the working group comprises of senior representatives from MPS, MPA, YJB, CPS, HMCS, Victim Support and two local authorities. The working group has focused on re-designing key elements of the youth justice system within two pilot boroughs (Greenwich and Lewisham), and Camberwell Youth Court, and has used this work to inform the development of the overall Youth Justice Strategy itself.

The London CJB Youth Justice strategy comprises of five strands:

Performance

15. Identifies what success in the YJS looks like; produces a performance dashboard to enable London CJB partners to measure their collective impact on improvements to youth justice.

Risk identification and assessment

16. Focus on improving the identification and assessment of risk (both risk of offending and of victimisation) across police, YOT and local authority partners through the use of the ACPO / YJB Youth Toolkit (Youth Safety Assessment Tool (Y-SAT)). To include piloting of the Triage model within police charging centres to inform diversion decisions and responses to more serious youth offences. Developing a youth specific component of the ‘Diamond Initiative’ resettlement programme. Pilot activity for the Y-SAT and Triage models is being evaluated by Matrix Knowledge Consultancy. Funding for the evaluation of the wider Youth Strategy programme is still being sought.

Youth Court Environment

17. Work to improve the speed, safety and impact of London’s youth courts through implementation of CJSSS (youth); increasing the awareness / take up of special measures amongst young witnesses; improvements to the safety of the youth court environment; developing community justice models for youth - encouraging positive, proactive links between youth courts, sentencers and local schools.

Young victims

18. Focus on developing and piloting a high quality, end to end model of support for young victims; increase confidence of young people in reporting crime through use of safe spaces, and piloting of confidential, interactive reporting tools.

Positive participation

19. Work to develop a structured engagement programme to respond to young peoples views of the YJS (as set out in MPA youth scrutiny); pilot innovation in relation to youth community justice (i.e. Youth Juries); Inside Justice Week – high profile focus on youth and engagement with schools; active use of media to engage YP.

20. The second aspect of risk assessment is use of Triage, which aims to bring YOT expertise and intelligence into the custody area at the point of charge. This means that young people who may be suitable for diversion out of the criminal justice system are identified quickly and interventions put in place immediately including restorative justice. The risk-assessment process assists with information on prolific and serious offenders and enables YOT to work quickly where a young person’s behaviour is causing concern. Greenwich and Lewisham began this process on 16 June 08. Matrix has been commissioned to evaluate the whole programme. Nothing is available at present; they are looking at Logic models with an interim report December in advance of the end of year evaluation.

21. Linking to the risk-assessment process is a Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Youth Justice Board project to use a restorative disposal for young people (YRD) in less serious offences. When a lesser offence is detected on the street the police officer may carry out an immediate disposal using restorative techniques. This will only be an option where the young offender has no previous warnings or convictions. S/he will be given (with consent) a restorative intervention at the time of the offence. This will be recorded for Youth Offending service information and to prevent repeat YRD disposal being given. The crime will be recorded but with a positive outcome but will not be counted as a detection. This will start in September 2008.

Lewisham OCU
In the first 6 weeks Triage was used as a disposal for 37 SD offences. There were also a further 45 SD offences that could potentially have been Triaged.

Greenwich OCU
In the first 6 weeks Triage was used as a disposal for 10 SD offences. There was also a further 24 SD offences that could potentially have been Triaged.

Training is being considered, however at this present time it appears that dealing with issues through custody managers is the most effective way of removing potential problems.

Young victims

22. With regard to ‘Young Victims’ the LCJB work plan recognises the strong correlation between young people who are victims and those who go onto commit offences. An end-to-end model of support for young victims, with partners from Victim Support, HMCS, MPS and local authorities is being developed. The model focuses specifically on delivering better support to young victims of serious, youth violence through a range of interventions including (a) developing and delivering a Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) approach to supporting young victims including the use of advocates. This would link into the Youth Safety Assessment Tool to assist with identification of those most at risk (b) improved access to special measures in court including use of video links (c) possible development of ‘SHARP’ model within London schools whereby young people can report crime / incidents within their schools via school intranet sites, these reports can be anonymous. The site also enables them to access information on local support schemes, as well as download DVDs of key issues such as knife safety etc. This piece of work is still being developed as part of the Youth Crime Action Plan. There is some funding available for short-term pilots once the project plan has been submitted.

23. Funds are being sought from the Youth Crime Action Plan to pilot an end-to-end victim approach in at least one pilot borough (Lewisham), although with additional funding it could be delivered across a wider range of boroughs.

Restorative Approaches

24. The MPS uses restorative approaches to dealing with youth offending and anti-social behaviour.

• Many Safer Schools Partnership schools officers are trained to use a restorative approach in situations that are not serious enough to be recorded as a crime.
• Police officers in Youth Offending Teams also use a restorative approach following final warning or as part of a referral order plan (lowest level of court disposal).

25. In addition there are three pilot areas of work that seek to extend the use of a restorative approach.

• Youth Restorative Disposal discussed above (Greenwich and Lewisham)
• Triage in custody above (Greenwich and Lewisham)
• A national project called restorative approaches in neighbourhoods (RAiN). Police officers, PCSOs and partners are trained to use a restorative approach to resolve problems. RAiN is not age specific but has been focused on preventing youth offending. Four MPS boroughs have trained Safer Neighbourhood Teams to use restorative approaches in local problem solving, mainly reducing anti-social behaviour and less serious crime. The focus of this work is preventing escalation of youth offending and fast response before situations or behaviour becomes entrenched. Generating this new process has required training and is slowly developing as a useful police response. Using a restorative approach in this context is not a detection’ and therefore a RAiN intervention must impact on other performance measures such as confidence and effectiveness of police in dealing with local problems (measured in public attitude surveys). RAiN pilots monitor participant satisfaction after an intervention. Satisfaction is high even where the victim has declined the approach. The Four MPS boroughs currently in the RAiN project are:
  • Barnet
  • BARKING AND DAGENHAM
  • Lewisham (NDC Wards)
  • Islington
     

Table 3 - Number of Police officers, PCSOs and partners trained to use a restorative approach to resolve problems

26. In addition, the London CJB Youth Strategy responds directly to the findings of the recent MPA Youth Scrutiny. A number of recommendations within the Youth Scrutiny are attributed to London CJB. We are progressing these actions through delivery of the Youth Strategy work strands.

Equalities Implications

27. Addressing disproportionality within the youth justice system is a key component of the youth justice strategy. The strategy will develop cross CJS agency responses to recommendations from the 2007 Select Committee report into young black people in the criminal justice system and will work with the London CJB Equalities Board to improve the data set in relation to youth justice. An equality impact assessment is being undertaken for the Youth Strategy.

Beacon site – Westminster

28. London continues to make good progress around its work on the OCJR Beacon programme.

29. The Westminster case study site has now rolled out the key projects required under the scheme: CJSSS adult; Streamlined Process; Witness Charter; Community Engagement and Conditional Cautions. It is now moving to consider the next phase of projects within the reform programme including CJSSS Youth and Integrated Prosecution Teams. We will be undertaking a post implementation review exercise with Westminster in September to consider progress and learning to date and how this might inform the future direction of Beacons within London.

30. At London level we are progressing with the development and analysis of the 'Waterfall model' the key analytical tool provided as part of the programme and are reviewing 06/07 and 07/08 data to understand what this tells us both about the success of projects to date and where we need to focus for the future.

Integrated prosecution teams (IPT)

31. Property Services Department (PSD) and TP Emerald have conducted property reviews throughout the MPS to identify IPT accommodation. The reviews identify that no current accommodation solution exists at Barking and Merton and these BOCUs will progress to IPT when the BBCC opens in Q3 of 2010. PSD continue to explore potential solutions at the following sites; Hounslow, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond, Wandsworth

32. Westminster BOCU awaits further consideration as to the possible transfer of CO14 (Clubs & Vice Unit) from Charing Cross Police Station to be endorsed; there is no alternative MPS solution to accommodate 67 CPS desks locally. CPS has prepared a contingency plan to transfer their staff prior to the current accommodation lease expiry in June 2009. Croydon BOCU has no immediate accommodation solution through utilisation of MPS accommodation. CPS has offered the Croydon IPT to be located in CPS accommodation recently secured in Croydon. The SROs are currently considering this proposal.

33. The IPT Project Board have authorised IPT delivery to Ealing, Enfield and Haringey in February 2009 and Lewisham, Havering and Kensington and Chelsea in March 2009. The remaining BOCUs will transfer to IPT throughout 2009 with full delivery anticipated by March 2010.

34. Early adopter sites at Bexley and Barnet BOCUs will commence the single case file in September and will complete IPT transition in November 2008. Camden and Islington commence the single case file in November with full IPT transition completed in January 2009.

35. The three pilot sites at Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest have been fully signed off by the Project Board. A review of MPS and CPS staffing in the pilot sites will be completed in August to confirm existing and potential further efficiency savings. Performance data at the three pilot sites remains positive and is detailed below. An exception to the continual improvement in performance is the recent increase in ineffective trials at Hackney. The key cause has been witness non-attendance at court in the last two performance months; this matter has been highlighted to the BOCU for remedy.

 Table 4 - Pilot site performance data

36. Crown Court data relating to court times is limited but sufficient data exists to detail the time taken for committal from Magistrates Court to Crown Court. The data shown is for Snaresbrook Crown Court that serves the three IPT pilot sites; the data shows minor impact to performance and is recorded in weeks taken.

Table 5 - Time taken for committal from Magistrates Court to Crown Court at Snaresbrook Crown Court

Custody inspections

37. In January 2008, the Custody Directorate within TP Emerald, working with the Safety & Health Risk Management Unit (HR5), began a thematic review of custody to improve safety of detainees, staff and other custody users. Where appropriate, recommendations were made and a corporate support structure put in place. To date 14 BOCUs have been inspected (24 custody suites).

38. The internal inspection process now includes a pre-inspection interview with the senior management lead for custody who is also debriefed following the inspection. The final report, with recommendations, is provided to BOCUs with an expectation that action is taken to address the identified issues and a formal response given within six weeks. Some BOCUs have been re-inspected to ensure that standards are maintained.

39. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has begun a five-year programme of national inspections working with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP). To date three MPS BOCUs, Southwark, Islington and Hillingdon, have been inspected. The report for Southwark BOCU was published on 6 August 2008. Whilst there was much praise for the standards and compliance with PACE within the report there was also criticism of some areas of custody on the borough, particularly in relation to standards of hygiene and cleanliness. The MPS has already formally responded to these criticisms and a Gold Group, chaired by Commander Paul Minton was established to ensure that appropriate remedial action was taken and lessons learnt were promulgated to other BOCUs.

40. The custody suite at Southwark Police Station was closed whilst remedial work was completed. Since the inspection, all of the deficiencies identified in the report have been remedied and the custody suite has been reopened.

41. Action currently underway includes:

• Planned improvements to FME rooms including the provision of lockable medical cabinets, secure disposal of medicines and hand gel dispensers.
• Enhanced auditing and monitoring of cleaning standards in custody suites.
• Examination of the management and staffing of custody suites.
• All custody staff now carry cell keys and ligature cutters.

Government Green Paper: ‘From the neighbourhood to the national: policing our communities together.’

42. A response to the Green Paper from the whole of the MPS is being prepared and TP Emerald has contributed to the issues involving criminal justice.

43. There are several references to witness and victim care and the need to provide more information and support to victims and witnesses. As previously reported to PPRC, the MPS introduced Victim Focus desks in 2007 and these are now having a positive impact on victim care. Likewise, the Witness Care units provide support to witnesses once an accused has been charged. Keeping communities informed of CJ developments and outcomes is also a key theme of the paper and options to address this are being explored.

44. Visible Justice and how communities can have greater involvement in the administration of justice is also discussed. The MPS are already pursuing this concept via the Community Justice pilots.

45. There is specific mention of Virtual Courts (VC) and the MPS response will include an update on the MPS pilot of VC and other issues we would wish the Government to consider. This includes the removal of the need for consent for VC and the power to search detainees returning to a police station to appear before a VC. Both these issues are being progressed.

46. All of the above contributes to the MPS and LCJB drive to bring more offenders to justice and to improving public confidence in the CJ system.

Glossary of terms

ACE

Asset Confiscation Enforcement Team

BBCC

Borough Based Custody Centre

BOCU

Borough Operational Command Unit

BTR

Bail To Return

CAIT

Child Abuse Investigation Team

CJIT

Criminal Justice Information Technology

CJS

Criminal Justice Service

CPS

Crown Prosecution Service

DDO

Designated Detention Officer

DGQP

Directors Guidance Quick Process

FDA

Association of First Division Civil Servants

FME

Forensic Medical Examiner

FTA

 Fail To Appear

HMSC

Her Majesty’s Court Service

IPT

Integrated Prosecution Team

IWMT

Integrated Warrants Management Team

LCJB

London Criminal Justice Board

LIT

Local Implementation Team

MARAC

Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

NES

National Enforcement Service

NSPIS CuCP

National Strategy for Police Information Services Custody and Case Preparation

OBTJ

Offences Brought to Justice

OCJR

Office of Criminal Justice Reform

OIC

Officer in Case

PCS

Public and Commercial Services Union

PER

Prisoner Escort Record

PPM

Police Performance Meeting

PYO

Persistent Young Offender

PYTD

Performance Year To Date

QA

Quality Assurance

SD

Sanction Detections

SOP

Standard Operating Procedure

SRO

Senior Responsible Officer

SSSCJ

Simple Speedy Summary Criminal Justice

STHF

Short Term Holding Facility

VC

Virtual Courts

VFU

Victim Focus Unit

C. Race and equality impact

All Criminal Justice projects have their own Race and Equalities impact assessment completed. Race and Diversity issues are therefore addressed within each individual project.

D. Financial implications

There are implications in regard to NSPIS, Asset Recovery, NES, VFUs, IPTs and Virtual Courts. Each of these initiatives is to secure greater effectiveness and efficiency. Each will have cashable and non-cashable savings. Although Virtual Courts originally offered no cashable savings, it has now been agreed that cashable savings of £1.3 million will be achieved from 2011/ 2012 onwards.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Chief Superintendent Joanna Young, Territorial Policing, MPS

For more information contact:

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

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