Oral Answers to Questions

Luciana Berger Excerpts

Tuesday 24th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Attorney-General]

I can assure my hon. Friend that that is the position. The provision of specialist co-ordinators and rape prosecutors, the issuing of stalking guidance and the effective monitoring of the measures we have put in place will continue. As I said in answer to the earlier question, the evidence suggests that the good work done by the previous Government is being successfully continued. I want to emphasise that both in terms of the volume of prosecutions and their success rate.

[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

2. What priorities the Crown Prosecution Service has set during the comprehensive spending review period.

[Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op)]

8. What priorities the Crown Prosecution Service has set during the comprehensive spending review period.

[The Solicitor-General (Mr Edward Garnier)]

The priorities are to provide a prosecution service of the highest quality, informed by its core quality standards, published in April 2010, which set the measures by which the CPS is judged by itself and others; to provide a more streamlined and efficient service, for example by making good use of all available technology; and, by working with the police and the courts, to eliminate unnecessarily bureaucratic systems, while at all times promoting justice.

[Luciana Berger]

I thank the Solicitor-General for his answer, but will he respond to the serious concerns of defence barristers and Victim Support about the CPS instructing single counsel for the prosecution, including for murder cases with multiple defendants, as a result of cost pressures?

[The Solicitor-General]

I do not know whether that is a direct result of cost pressures, but I, too, have raised this very matter with the CPS, and we are looking into it with some care.