Attorney General: West Midlands CPS Group Community Prosecutor launch
16 September 2009
The Rt Hon the Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC
Attorney General Keynote Speech
West Midlands CPS Group Community Prosecutor Launch - 16 September 2009
Good morning. I am delighted to be able to join you to celebrate our entry into the delivery phase of the Community Prosecutor Approach, something I know you will agree represents an important and significant step in the further development of the Crown Prosecution Service into a modern prosecution service. The sort of service we applaud and the sort we care about.
I know that everyone in the room is committed and passionate about delivering a better prosecution service, and I am extremely pleased to be here with you today to speak about the work focussing upon the next logical step in further increasing our impact in providing criminal justice effectively for local communities.
Now, more than ever, it is really important that we really listen to communities, and listen to the people we are serving which will be crucial as we work through the programme to bring the CPS together with the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office to form a new public prosecution service.
Our aim in this new service builds upon the strengths and successes of previous initiatives in becoming more responsive to victims, more responsive to witnesses and more responsive to the public. It will be a key part of our work to deliver a more effective service response to the variety of crime challenges that we now face.
When the Government launched the Engaging Communities in Criminal Justice Green Paper back in April, a whole range of proposals were designed to open up the Criminal justice System to local communities so that services are much more transparent, responsive and more accountable to local people. In short, to highlight that the Criminal Justice System belongs to the people it serves. I remember when we were first talking about this - what was the contribution we, the CPS, could make. We were working with the Police and the Office for Criminal Justice Reform - but what was the added value we could bring? Out of that, the community prosecutor was born.
Alongside the consultation, we are working to introduce a package of measures in 30 Pathfinder areas across England & Wales during 2009. A major plank of this package will include: Community Prosecutors, which we will be speaking about in some detail today. If you look at the Green Paper - the community prosecutor is the most important element.
Community Impact Statements which has been developed into a national framework by the Court Service; Community Justice Teams, and Citizen Panels. We are the bit that is really new.
We put forward proposals which we believe will strengthen the connections between communities and their prosecution and court services, as well as to ensure that justice outcomes are much more responsive and much more visible. And we also outlined proposals aimed at keeping communities informed, getting people involved and really empowering them to keep communities safe.
As a package, those measures will really help us to respond to one of our biggest challenges - that is, demonstrating to the public that criminal justice services are working for them and are truly on their side. There's been a perception for a while that the system leans 99% on the side of the perpetrator and only 1% for victims. Gee Walker, Antony Walker's mother, after the successful prosecution of his killers said that she was really encouraged by the transparency of the system, but that the perception of the criminal justice system needed to be addressed.
Public confidence in the fairness of the Criminal justice System has been increasing year on year on year and for that the nation owes a huge debt of gratitude to the thousands of criminal justice workers and volunteers who have worked tirelessly to improve our ability to serve the public interest. If you go back and look at the figures of 2003 - we should have a sense of pride when we compare them to the excellent figures we have today. A real sense of pride, when we see how far we have come.
I believe a structured approach to better community inclusion, and ultimately problem solving, is a natural step for the Crown Prosecution Service to take in our commitment to effective prosecutions and ensuring the confidence of the public.
In England & Wales, Public Confidence in the Criminal Justice System is measured using the British Crime Survey. We started with a headline figure of 39% of the public feeling confident that the Criminal Justice System was effective in bringing offenders to justice back in 2003. That meant that the majority of people didn't think we were much cop. Through your hard work this has risen to 44% by March of 2008. This is a major achievement when one reflects upon how far we have had to come in order to get there.
Although we have met the Government target up to 2008, we have not stopped - neither have we rested. The British Crime Survey now includes measures of public confidence in both the fairness and the effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System as a whole. Our work in engaging with the public meant that in the period from October 2007 to March 2008, 56% of people were confident that the Criminal Justice System as a whole was fair. So now we only just tip the balance. But the difference is, more people believe in this - but there is still more to do.
Beyond this, that the public are aware of how effective the Criminal Justice system can be with their support and involvement.
I am so proud of the work you have done to reach this position. It speaks volumes about the real added value that all of you bring, that the momentum has been maintained. We have kept getting stronger and stronger. It is only because of your ceaseless effort that I am able to stand here today to launch the Community Prosecutor Approach, something I am confident will achieve real improvement in the public perception about our effectiveness in delivering criminal justice at the local level. I have to emphasize that this will take all of us to adopt this approach.
A number of factors contribute to people's perception of the Criminal Justice System. We know that the more people understand about the system, the more likely they are to have confidence in it. This is why I started the Inside Justice Awards in 2004. Some of that work begins at home, because each one of the 400,000 as part of the Criminal Justice Staff is a potential advocate for the changing system. If our own staff truly believe in the work they are doing, we place ourselves in a powerful position to convince the public that the approach we are taking is right. If we don't believe it is right - how do we convince others. We need to make sure we are self-critical so we can improve on what we are doing.
We share a responsibility to deliver the right message on community involvement to the public so that the public understands what we deliver, and values the achievements we make together. It has to be real.
I want to be clear, community inclusion does not weaken the independence of the Crown Prosecution Service. It ensures we are better informed about the local realities which will be taken into account when considering the public interest.
Nationally, crime is down by nearly a third since 1997, and we have reduced re-offending by nearly a quarter, whilst at the same time also bringing 44% more offences to justice in 2007/08 than we did in 2001/02.
These are real results, of which our staff and our volunteers can really be very proud, but we know we need to do more to ensure that the public know that justice is being done where it matters most that's in their communities. That's what it matters most. They need to understand why we are doing what we're doing and how we're doing it.
We have to be clear that although we have accomplished so much, people don't always accept these improvements - we need to be better at communicating our achievements.
Of course, I would not be standing here speaking to you if it were not for the hard work performed by volunteers dealing with local initiatives. You bring real value in helping us to plan service delivery at a local level, to properly consider local victim and witness issues and in providing objective scrutiny of the way in which we handle some of our most sensitive and difficult cases. It's not what we do, but how we do it that is important to the people we're serving.
As the Minister responsible for superintending the Crown Prosecution Service I am pleased that we have such a good working relationship with our partner agencies. We all have a genuine desire to continually improve and to deliver what the public rightly expects from us.
I know that a large part of today will focus on how we can build on that and learn from each others' experiences. I hope that you find today beneficial in helping you to continue helping us to improve what we do, within the context of building our new public prosecution service. You have to be brutal - you need to know where we are going right but also you need to understand where we're going wrong so that we can improve and avoid the same mistakes.
Your work is of course a critical part of our wider framework for community engagement right across the criminal justice system. The Green Paper, which I have already mentioned, provides for a strengthening of that framework. A centrepiece of the Green Paper is our Community Prosecutor approach which has been built upon the hard won results made real by the Crown Prosecution Service as well as the local delivery partners and volunteers. This is a collaborative approach, it is an approach which will involve problem solving aimed at the specific problems a community faces. When I have spoken to local groups they raise that they have no real understanding of what they consider important and what they would like to see in their own community.
In recent years we have forged effective and productive partnerships between prosecutors and other local delivery partners. It will see local prosecution teams, under the direction of their Community Prosecutor lead, working increasingly closely with local partners including Neighbourhood Policing Teams, probation officers and the Court Service to obtain better information on local concerns and to provide feedback to communities. This is not just for the community prosecutor. It is an approach for the whole team. The Code for Crown Prosecutors requires for the public interest to be understood - and it is important that we do this.
Importantly, this approach will see prosecution teams draw on a range of information sources, but
particularly signal offences and offenders of concern to the community, to ensure that courts are made aware of the impact which those offences have on the local community.
Community Prosecutors will also contribute to local problem-solving. They will provide continuity of advice to the police on the range of options available to tackle local priority problems; on the evidential issues related to them; and on any ancillary orders or out-of-court disposals which may be available and absolutely suitable in the circumstances.
We have begun to test the approach in approximately 50 pathfinder areas. We have Staffordshire, West Mercia, Warwickshire, and the West Midlands that are all included, so we can learn more about how to get it right and so we can pass on lessons we can craft and cull before it goes nationwide. If you see anything that is going wrong - see it as a good thing. We can only learn from it and improve.
Your critical comments on how we do this are therefore really significant. My vision is that all Crown Prosecution Service staff can make the Community Prosecutor approach second nature. I believe that the Community Prosecutor approach is a natural extension to what prosecutors already do in considering the public interest as part of their decision-making.
The Public Interest stage of the Code for Crown Prosecutors has long been a cornerstone of prosecution decisions. Once the evidential test of the Code is met, it makes specific provision for prosecutors to take into account the impact of a crime on a community. But how can we hope to make effective judgements unless we understand what is in the public interest without speaking to communities themselves and learning what will affect them?
We need to ensure that as we build our 21st century prosecution service, we work together to ensure it is one which is responsive to the concerns local people and what they really think about crime in their area.
Whilst this process improves visibility, and therefore public confidence, it is also about the vital discourse between the prosecutors and the people we act for in the public interest.
While our prosecutors appear in courtrooms and attend police stations to advise officers on a daily basis (an important part of their work), much of their work in tackling crime goes unseen. That is something I am clear we need to change.
As you will already know, Prosecutors play a vital role behind-the-scenes, but one that is at the sharp end of dealing with local crime. But, their profile is far less obvious than that of the police with whom they work so closely; but they are the effective gate-keepers to our local criminal justice systems. They are immersed on an hour-by-hour basis in decision- making that helps take criminals off our streets, strives to get justice for victims and impacts directly on the safety of local communities. We need to help people understand who we are and how we do our work.
The Community Prosecutor approach will mean that staff will have more information about local concerns. They will understand well how a particular type of crime is impacting on the community and can take this information into account when making casework decisions. And you will be able to see the impact of your decisions.
There are many types of prohibition orders available and, with the right information from the community, the prosecutor will be able to decide on what is appropriate, in order to better protect those who are adversely affected.
Of course, the CPS is an independent prosecuting service but if there is enough evidence they can then take information about the community into consideration when reviewing and applying the public interest test of the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
This is already starting to produce results in Stoke-on- Trent where Community Prosecutors are listening to local concerns about the need for a targeted approach to tackling a local problems, they started with "kerb crawling" and prostitution. This is a problem that can blight neighbourhoods. As a result of this I am confident public awareness will improve along with confidence. We know that many Chief Crown Prosecutors and other staff already attend community meetings and liaise with partners in the criminal justice system and beyond. In Thames Valley, taxi cab drivers were experiencing significant levels of racial abuse. The CPS action was one of outreach - they started a dialogue with them, and have instilled in the drivers a sense of confidence in the CJS as a result. They would have felt let down if they weren't able to have this dialogue, but prosecutors have worked hard to listen to the voices within their community and take action to build confidence.
Importantly, the Community Prosecutor approach will greatly enhance our capacity to provide feedback to communities. This could mean prosecutors attending Neighbourhood Meetings with police officers, for example, to explain what action can be, or has been taken in a particular circumstance.
It will also enhance the support which we already provide to victims, and in so doing help us to build a greater degree of resilience to crime. Adequate support for victims at the time of need will reap benefits long term for allowing for healing, and the possibility of reducing the risk of the victim turning to crime at a later stage.
By working harder through the Community Prosecutor approach to support them and address their needs better it is important for us to recognise the strength of what has gone before. There is a range of existing activity - of which Hate Crime Scrutiny Panels and Community Involvement Panels are part - on which the Green Paper, and particularly the Community Prosecutor approach seeks to build.
These lessons form part of the Citizenship curriculum and explain the role of the CPS, its purpose within the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and the assistance that the CJS provides to young witnesses of crime.
Community Prosecutors sit within the wider Criminal Justice Framework including Pro Bono and other voluntary work, giving us an active and visible presence in our communities. I was delighted last June to be able to launch the CPS Pro Bono and Volunteers Network which will help to give greater focus, co-ordination and support to this valuable addition to our work.
I believe there is a wealth of evidence to support stronger and more far reaching community engagement right across the Criminal Justice System. I particularly love the Schools Project that CPS Derbyshire are running where teachers are going into schools to teach young people about the criminal justice system.
My ambition is that our prosecution service will play a leading role in a combined approach relying upon the local police services and that you will continue to help us to do so. I can't emphasise enough how much we need your whole hearted engagement to make the CPS the best prosecution service possible.
Finally, I would like to thank you all. Thank you for all the work you have done so far, but also thank you in advance for the work you are yet to do. Remember, your work is valued and will make a difference. As Home Office Minister in 2003 I was a keen advocate of joint working - the CPS, the Police and the Courts all working together. I believed in the strength of partnerships and how together we could deliver better confidence in the criminal justice system. I knew that the only way to do that is to take people with us. We have to show people how we do what we do, but also remember to explain our mistakes. I want to thank you all for taking up that joint working methodology, and I can believe that together we can make a difference.
Thank you