Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lucy Frazer and Eddie Hughes

Thursday 23rd May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Damien Moore (Southport) (Con)]

4. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of CPS engagement with local communities on the judicial process.

[Eddie Hughes (Walsall North) (Con)]

8. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of CPS engagement with local communities on the judicial process.

[The Solicitor General (Lucy Frazer)]

The Attorney General’s Office has regular engagement with the Crown Prosecution Service, and we know that the issue of community engagement is of key importance to the CPS. In May 2018, it launched its inclusion and community engagement strategy in addition to the existing consultation groups and scrutiny panels, all of which are pivotal in building trust with all communities in relation to CPS decisions.

[The Solicitor General]

My hon. Friend’s constituency falls within the Merseyside and Cheshire CPS area, and the inclusion and community engagement manager there is Jennifer Friday. She manages an ambitious programme of community engagement that includes sessions in high schools and a community conversation with people with learning disabilities, and I commend her work. The local criminal justice board has set up a sub-group to focus on hate crime, which is chaired by the CPS and includes Sefton Council.

[Eddie Hughes]

Does the Minister agree that local engagement with religious and minority groups helps to build public confidence in the criminal justice system?

[The Solicitor General]

It is absolutely vital that the CPS engages with all communities in the region where it operates. There is a variety of local engagement strategies, including through the local scrutiny boards, and I am aware that the local chief Crown prosecutor for the west midlands has specifically engaged with the Muslim community to help to build local relations there.