Keynote Speech - CPS Community Conference
9 July 2009 The Rt Hon the Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC
Attorney General
Good morning. I am delighted to be able to join you for what I think is an important event. I say important, because opportunities such as this are really valuable. Being able to talk with and hear from those who represent the communities that we serve really does help us in our efforts to shape and deliver a better prosecution service for the public. I know that everyone in the room is committed and passionate about delivering a better prosecution service. And I am extremely pleased to be working with Keir and others to take forward this agenda.
Now, more than ever, it is important that we really listen to communities, as we see through the programme of work which will bring the CPS together with the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office to form a new public prosecution service.
Our aim is that this new service builds upon the strengths and successes of both organisations and is increasingly responsive to victims, witnesses and the public. It will be a key part of our work to deliver a more effective service and to provide an ever more effective response to the variety of crime challenges that we now face.
We face a significant threat from serious organised crime. One element of that crime is fraud, and the new public prosecution service will form an important part of the National Fraud Authority's developing framework for managing a costly and damaging crime which we know has real impacts on everyday life, particularly in the current economic climate.
When the Government launched the Engaging Communities in Criminal Justice Green Paper back in April it sought to emphasise our belief that the Criminal Justice System belongs to the people it serves.
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 more visible. And we also outlined proposals aimed at keeping communities informed, getting people involved and empowering communities
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.
Crime is down by nearly a third since 1997 and we have reduced re-offending by nearly a quarter. We also brought 44% more offences to justice in 2007/08 than we did in 2001/02.
These are real results, in which our staff and our volunteers can really be very proud, but we know we need to do much more to ensure that the public know that justice is being done where it matters most - in their own communities. We have to be clear that although we've done so much, people don't always accept these improvements - we need to better at communicating our achievements.
The work which with which you are already involved - through our Community Involvement Panels and Hate Crime Scrutiny Panels - is a key part of that. 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 how we handle some of our most sensitive and difficult cases.
As the Minister responsible for superintending the Crown Prosecution Service I am pleased that we have been brave enough to open ourselves out to such scrutiny. It is the mark of a confident organisation - and a modern public prosecution service - when it can be prepared to ask for the truth, however uncomfortable that might be. But I know that we do so out of a genuine desire to
continually improve and to deliver what the public rightly expects from us.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for the time you have given to us voluntarily and so generously. Community engagement has always been a strong passion of mine and I was pleased when the first Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel in West Yorkshire received a Justice Award in 2007. I was so proud of the work they had done, and continue to do. It speaks volumes about the real added value that you bring that the momentum has been maintained and that we are having this event today.
I also know that across the CPS we now have 11 community involvement panels fully operational, with others on the way. Together, I hope both the scrutiny panels and the involvement panels send a clear message about our determination to be open and transparent about the workings of our prosecution business.
I know that a large part of today will focus on how we build on this 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.
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.
This approach builds on our successive improvements and our successes in recent years in forging 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 and probation officers to obtain better information on local concerns and to provide feedback to communities.
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 locally.
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 suitable in the circumstances.
We have begun to test the approach in approximately 50 pathfinder locations so we can learn more about how to get it right and pass on lessons before it goes nationwide. Your critical
comments on how we do this are therefore really significant. My ambition is that all CPS 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 about what is in the public interest without speaking to them? We need
to ensure that as we build our 21st century prosecution service it is one which is responsive to the concerns local people have about crime.
Overall, it's about visibility. While our prosecutors appear in courtrooms and attend police stations to advise officers on a daily basis, much of their work in tackling crime goes quite unseen. That is something I am clear we need to change.
As you will already know, Prosecutors play a vital behind-the-scenes role at the sharp end of dealing with local crime. 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.
I want to be clear that the Community Prosecutor approach is not a job title. It is not an add on - it is an integral part of what we do. It is a much more powerful tool than that. It is an ethos; a way of working that I hope will become fully embedded in the culture of our new public prosecution service as we move forward. It is important that we demonstrate that freshness and enthusiasm to those with whom we work. My vision is that it will be adopted by all members of our staff, whether they are lawyers, receptionists or witness care officers.
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.
For example, 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.
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, to explain what action can be, or has been taken.
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. We know that many of the defendants who we deal with were at one time victims. So by working harder through the Community Prosecutor approach to support them and address their needs we will be able to make a real contribution to our efforts to further reduce crime going forward.
It is important for us to recognise the strength of what has gone before, and to not seek unnecessarily to reinvent the wheel. 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.
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.
The CPS in Thames Valley is working ever more closely with the police and other agencies to make communities safer. For example, The CPS is a member of the Cherwell Neighbourhood Action Group which aims to identify specific issues of local concern. The CPS also leads the Oxfordshire Confidence Action Team which carries out community engagement work and includes charities such as the Young Victims of Crime Project.
Also in Thames Valley a CPS District Crown Prosecutor leads a project which consults the Muslim community in High Wycombe and in particular concentrates on enabling the voices of Muslim women and young people to be heard.
In Merseyside the CPS has been working with the North West Ambulance Service to try to tackle the increasingly frequent of assaults on ambulance crews by members of the public. The Recorder of Liverpool has this month agreed that CPS prosecutors can read a prepared community impact statement to the court, which will explain that such attacks on staff resulted in the ambulance service losing 1,740 working hours in 2008, leading to fewer crews being available to serve the public.
And, in Derbyshire the CPS have successfully worked in conjunction with Derbyshire County Council Local Authority to develop two interactive lessons for 11 to 16 year olds.
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.
I had the privilege of seeing this project at first hand and am really pleased that it is preparing for a wider pilot across the East Midlands and possible further roll-out after that. It was stunning to listen to 13 year olds discussing the evidential test and the public interest test. Those children understood the processes of the CJS and that if they didn't participate that they would not be involved in justice. They also understood why the CPS cannot always prosecute. Building resilience and bringing about
change is already being carried out by these children and we need to build on this.
Many CPS staff are also engaged in a wide range Pro Bono and other voluntary work, giving us an active and visible presence in our communities. I was delighted last month 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 know that the Director of Public Prosecutions and I share an ambition that our prosecution service will play a leading role, 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. I want this conference not just to be an opportunity to talk, but one that will deliver action. We need to keep talking and keep delivering.