Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Crown Prosecution Service in ensuring access to justice for victims of crime.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) is currently conducting a programme of CPS Area specific inspections to assess casework quality and treatment of victims and witnesses. These inspections have recognised some good work in what continues to be a very challenging environment. The CPS recognise that they still need to improve on their work with victims and witnesses and have commissioned a significant piece of research to better understand victims’ needs. The findings of this research will be used to inform their future work on improving communications with victims.
The CPS will also apply for special measures available to assist victims and witnesses to give their best evidence, this includes the use of court appointed intermediaries, screens and in certain cases pre-recording a victim’s evidence.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that they act in accordance with the rule of law.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
The freedoms and protections that we all enjoy rely on the rule of law. This is an important constitutional principle which this Government takes extremely seriously and which demands: equality under the law; access to independent and impartial justice; government subject to the law; law that is clear and certain.
The Law Officers have a particular role in respect of upholding the rule of law. I, and my fellow Law Officers, take that responsibility very seriously whenever we are called upon to provide advice.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the (1) effectiveness, and (2) efficiency, of the (a) Serious Fraud Office, and (b) Crown Prosecution Service, in tackling (i) fraud, and (ii) economic crime.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
We are determined to make the UK a more hostile environment for all forms of economic crime – including fraud. As prosecuting agencies, both the CPS and SFO play a critical role in this aim and continue to deliver strong operational results.
We have strengthened our fight against economic crime through publication of a landmark Economic Crime Plan in July 2019, which brings together government, law enforcement and the private sector. We are making measurable progress in delivering the Economic Crime Plan with 34 of the actions complete and work well advanced on the remaining 18.
In 2020-21, the CPS prosecuted over 6,500 defendants for Fraud with an 85.6% conviction rate. The SFO successfully secured orders requiring the payment by defendants of almost £1.3 billion to the taxpayer over the past five years.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to increase the number of prosecutions for offences relating to violence against women and girls.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
Tackling offending against women and girls is a priority for this Government, as shown by the introduction of the landmark Domestic Abuse (DA) Act.
The CPS is working hard to deliver justice and protect the public and has recently published an ambitious 12-month domestic abuse programme to help narrow the disparity between reporting and criminal justice outcomes.
Rape and serious sexual offences can also disproportionately affect women and girls. The CPS is committed to securing justice in every possible rape case, which means significantly increasing the number they bring to court, year on year. It is improving collaboration with police and other partners to take an offender-centric approach to building these cases, expanding its specialist RASSO units and improving the support it gives rape victims.
The Ministry of Justice are investing £27m to create 700 new posts for Independent Domestic Violence Advisors and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors, and that figure will increase to 1000 by the end of 2024/2025. In order to support victims throughout the criminal justice process.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the prosecution rate for rape.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
The stark drop in the number of cases that have gone before a jury in recent years means too few victims are seeing justice. Closing the gap between reports of rape and prosecutions is an absolute priority for this Government. The CPS are undertaking extensive work to drive up and improve prosecutions through the Joint National RASSO Action Plan with the police, RASSO 2025, and the Operation Soteria pathways, which are currently underway in five CPS Areas.
Work already delivered by the CPS includes the publication of a National Independent Sexual Violence Adviser (ISVA) Framework outlining baseline standards around the CPS’ work with ISVAs, the publication of a memorandum of understanding with the police on seeking early advice to support effective and efficient decision-making in rape cases, and the publication of a digital walk through, which explains for victims the process of a criminal trial.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the number of police referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
The Government has committed to publish quarterly criminal justice scorecards which bring together data from across the system on key areas of performance including police referrals. This will allow us to identify problem areas and take a cross-system response to dips in performance. We have a number of measures to monitor different aspects of police referrals to the CPS so that we can identify where in the process issues are occurring. The first national scorecards were published in early December and can be found here: https://data.justice.gov.uk/cjs-scorecard-all-crime.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the rate at which perpetrators of crime are charged in the criminal justice system.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
The decision to charge suspects in England and Wales with criminal offences is made either by the police or by the CPS depending on the nature of the offence involved. The CPS make the decision to charge in serious cases but over the last five years the police have made the charging decision in 61% to 63% of the cases that are prosecuted by the CPS. In cases in which the CPS make the decision to charge, the CPS had a charging rate of between 74.5% and 77.7% over the last five years.
While the police and other investigators are responsible for conducting inquiries into any alleged crime and gathering evidence to inform a charging decision, prosecutors work closely with police during the investigation stage to assist with the building of strong cases. The recently introduced Director of Public Prosecution’s Guidance on Charging 6th Edition (DG6) supports this work to ensure cases are robustly prepared by police and prosecutors pre-charge.
This reflects aspects of the revised Attorney General’s Guidelines on Disclosure; both came into effect in England and Wales on the 31 December 2020.