Select Committee on Home Affairs Minutes of Evidence


THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CPS INSPECTORATE

1.  BACKGROUND

  1.1  The Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (CPSI) was established in 1996 as an integral part of the CPS itself, being located within the Directorate of Casework Evaluation. Its first full operational year was 1997-98. During that period it was, in common with the rest of the CPS, scrutinised by the review of the Crown Prosecution Service (the Glidewell Review) which commented favourably upon its work. It did, however, make recommendations for introducing greater independence into the Inspectorate which it also recommended should have a wider remit. The Government subsequently decided that the Inspectorate should be placed on an independent statutory footing as soon as the legislative timetable permitted. The appointment of a new Chief Inspector to oversee and take forward these changes was announced in December 1998 and took effect on 22 March 1999.

2.  CURRENT SITUATION

  2.1  Against this background, CPSI commenced a change programme during 1999-2000. In addition to the changes mentioned above, it also addressed the need for CPSI to adapt its methodology and working arrangements to the new and more decentralised structure of the CPS, together with its new management style. The most significant consequence was the decision to change the basis of inspection from Branches (previously 94) to Areas (42). The other main changes are:

    (i)  Inspections will, in future, be based on a two year cycle, rather than the four year cycle of the previous Branch based inspection programme. This change is specifically at the request of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Chief Executive of the CPS. The new structure of the CPS is unusual in having 42 CCPs, each reporting to the DPP/Chief Executive, with no intermediate tier of management. The inspection process will therefore be a major source of assurance for them as to the quality of casework and overall performance in CPS Areas.

    (ii)  The inspection process would continue to focus mainly on the quality of casework decision-making and casework handling, but will in future extend to all matters which go to support the casework process. In effect, the Inspectorate will examine all aspects of Area performance, basing its work on 12 non-legal themes, in addition to the existing legal themes.

  2.2  Notwithstanding these changes, the purpose of CPSI remains unchanged: to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of the CPS through a process of inspection and evaluation, the provision of advice, and the identification and promotion of good practice.

  2.3  The combined effect of the decision to reduce the inspection cycle from four years to two years and that CPSI should have a wider remit is to require a significant expansion of staffing which will increase in total from 22 to 37. CPSI has recently moved to separate accommodation outside CPS headquarters. This was in any event necessary because accommodation pressures generally in CPS headquarters ruled out the possibility of any additional accommodation there. Reinforcement of the Inspectorate's independent status is a useful incidental benefit.

  2.4  The Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate Bill was introduced into the House of Lords in November 1999 and completed the Lords stages of its Parliamentary consideration during January 2000. It is at present awaiting Second Reading in the House of Commons. There is, however, no impediment to swift implementation (subject to the conventional two month period between Royal Assent and implementation) and it is expected that CPSI will be constituted as a statutory independent body during autumn 2000. It will constitute a separate self-contained unit with day-to-day management being in the hands of the Chief Inspector. The Chief Inspector will be appointed by, and report to, the Attorney General. An Advisory Board (containing an external element) will advise on overall strategy and the work programme.

  2.5  The Glidewell report also recommended that CPSI undertake an enhanced programme of thematic reviews. Those planned for 2000-2001 include the handling of cases involving an ethnic minority dimension, custody time limit compliance, offences arising out of fatal road traffic accidents and, provided the necessary funding and other arrangements can be agreed, rape.

  2.6  The Chief Inspector is also developing, at the specific request of the Attorney General, the role of lay inspectors. This initiative is intended to bring a new perspective to the work of CPSI by involving informed members of the public in the inspection process. They will look at the way in which the CPS relates to the public, through its dealings with the victims and witnesses, its external communications and liaison, its handling of complaints and its interpretation of the public interest test contained in the Code for Crown Prosecutors. CPSI is greatly assisted in the development of this initiative by co-operation which it is receiving from Victim Support, Citizens Advice Bureaux and the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders.

  2.7  The work programme for 1999-2000 reflected the need to accommodate the substantial change being implemented in both the CPS and CPSI. A policy decision was taken that it would be inappropriate to pursue any Area inspections for the first six months after the restructuring of the CPS which took effect on 1 April 1999. The work of CPSI therefore focused on the concluding stages (report writing and publication etc) of work already in hand, preparing the legislation necessary to put the Inspectorate on an independent statutory basis, developing and agreeing with the DPP and the Law Officers the wider remit of the Inspectorate, revising the methodology of CPSI in the light of the changes to its environment, and developing a programme of Area inspections which took effect from 1 November 1999.

  2.8  During 1999-2000, CPSI undertook three thematic reviews. Reports have already been published on "Advocacy and Case Presentation" and on "CPS compliance with its duties in relation to Disclosure of Unused Material". The latter has been recognised as a significant contribution to the current review of the operation of the disclosure regime contained in the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996. A third thematic report relating to CPS compliance with its own performance indicator regime will be published shortly.

  2.9  The Area inspection programme commenced in November 1999 with inspections of Dorset and Merseyside. Publication of those reports is imminent. Further inspections have been undertaken in relation to Gloucestershire and West Mercia. Those reports will be published in about June. Inspections are currently in hand, or about to commence in Lancashire, Essex and Derbyshire. The full Area inspection programme (which entails six inspections proceeding at any particular time) should be fully operational by July 2000. It could not be fully implemented until the additional staff required by the CPSI had been recruited (through open competition in most cases) and sufficiently trained.

  2.10  An organogram of CPSI is at D[4] below, together with the latest draft of the Area inspection programme E*, and the programme of thematic reviews is at F*.

  2.11  In addition to the above work, CPSI will participate in joint inspections with other criminal justice inspectorates. This programme will take account of the priorities agreed for the criminal justice system as a whole. Particular attention is paid to youth justice and equality issues in all aspects of the work of CPSI.


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