16. Written evidence from the South Wales
Criminal Justice Board
1. BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
1.1 In 2001, Lord Justice Auld conducted
a review of the work of the Criminal Justice agencies and made
a number of recommendations in his "Justice for All"
white paper. In response to his recommendations, the Government
established 42 Local Criminal Justice Boards (LCJBs) throughout
England and Wales in April 2003 to deliver a joined up Criminal
Justice service in which partnership is key to success.
2. ROLE OF
THE SOUTH
WALES CRIMINAL
JUSTICE BOARD
2.1 The purpose of the South Wales Criminal
Justice Board (SWCJB) is to oversee delivery of key criminal justice
targets that will narrow the justice gap by bringing more offences
and their perpetrators to justice, improve the quality of service
to victims, witnesses and the accused, and raise public confidence
in the criminal justice system.
2.2 The South Wales Local Criminal Justice
Board serves one and a half million people, who constitute 42%
of the population of the principality. Barry, Bridgend, Cardiff,
Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd and Swansea are the largest centres
in the area and the latest census shows that approximately 3.5%
of the local population are from ethnic minority groups. There
are wide disparities in the standard of living ranging from poverty
in many districts to affluence in parts of Cardiff.
3. SWCJB MEMBERSHIP
& GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE
3.1 The SWCJB operates on a regional basis
and comprises of chief officers from the key criminal justice
agencies, including the Chief Constable; Chief Crown Prosecutor;
Chief Executive of the Unified Courts Service; Chief Officer of
the South Wales Probation Area; Area Manager for Wales from the
Prison Service and one Youth Offending Team Manager representing
the interests of the seven YOTs in South Wales.
3.2 The SWCJB has employed a Performance
Officer, Communications Officer and an Administrative Assistant
to help coordinate its day-to-day business.
3.3 To assist in their work, the Performance
Officer, Communications Officer and Administrative Assistant service
the Board. The Performance Officer's role is to provide monthly
reports on performance, identifying blockages in the system and
where possible implements solutions to overcome such blockages.
The Communications Officer helps to communicate the work of the
Board to employees within the various criminal justice agencies
and to people within the communities of South Wales. The Administrative
Assistant acts as the secretary to the Board and is responsible
for all administrative and financial matters.
3.4 The SWCJB is structured as follows:
— The South Wales Criminal Justice
Board is made up of Chief Officers from each agency. The SWCJB
meets once every two months and is responsible for steering the
whole operation by providing strategic guidance and oversight.
It developed a Delivery Plan for 2004-05 and is currently in the
process of developing a new Plan for 2005-06 which will be operational
by 1 April 2005;
— A Performance Steering Group meets
monthly to review progress towards targets. Subgroups include:
Narrowing the Justice Gap; Persistent Young Offenders/Prolific
and other Priority Offenders and Criminal Case Management; and
— A Public Confidence Steering Group
to specifically address the governments target in this area. Subgroups
include: Communications; Victims and Witnesses; Race and diversity,
and Domestic Violence (An organisational chart is presented at
Annex 1 for further information).
4. BUDGET
4.1 In 2003-04, the Home Office provided
SWCJB with a budget of £65,000 and in 2004-05 this amount
was increased to £115,000. The Office for Criminal Justice
Reform have informed Board's to plan on the assumption that they
will receive at least the same level of funding for 2006-07.
5. TARGETS &
OTHER PRIORITIES
5.1 The South Wales Area, as defined by
the police force boundaries, has various priorities agreed by
Government, which are:
— To increase the number of offences
brought to justice;
— To reduce the number of ineffective
trials;
— To increase the number of court warrants
executed by the police;
— To reduce the time taken to finalise
persistent young offender cases; and
— To increase public satisfaction and
confidence in the criminal justice system.
5.2 Other closely linked initiatives are
being undertaken within the framework of the Criminal Case Management
Programme, which include improving the service provided by the
criminal justice system to victims and witnesses of crime; effectively
implementing the Statutory Charging Scheme throughout South Wales
and implementing the Effective Trials Management Programme. SWCJB
also seeks to improve the timeliness and efficiency by which the
criminal justice system operates.
6. SWCJB PERFORMANCE
& OTHER SUCCESSES
6.1 A summary of the latest SWCJB performance
is presented in Annex 2 and is discussed below.
6.2 Increasing Offences Brought to Justice
Last year the government set a target for every
Criminal Justice Board to increase the number of offences brought
to justice by 5%. South Wales had to bring 31,697 offences to
justice compared to its baseline of 30,188 offences.
Through the determination and hard work of all
of the criminal justice agencies, South Wales achieved an excellent
14.4% improvement on its baseline figure by March 2004, thereby
exceeding its target by almost 3,000 offences. This achievement
was due to effective police investigation and effective inter-agency
working and information sharing from the point of charge to sentencing
of offenders, ensuring that those who are guilty of crimes are
caught and properly punished by the courts. Jane Furniss, Director
of the Criminal Justice Performance Directorate in the Home Office
recognised this achievement and personally wrote to the Board
to offer her commendation.
In 2004-05, South Wales has been tasked with
bringing 31,899 offences to justice and current figures to the
end of July 2004, show that South Wales is currently only 126
offences behind its target.
6.3 Ineffective Trials
Ineffective trials are those that are adjourned
on the day set for trial and involve the witnesses having to attend
court on another occasion. These trials cause unnecessary inconvenience
to victims and witnesses and waste valuable criminal justice resources.
The ineffective trial rate for the South Wales
Crown Court is well ahead of the national average and the objective
is to maintain current performance during 2003-04. The local target
for the Magistrates' Courts is to reduce the proportion of ineffective
trials to 23% during 2004-05 and performance is at 19% for the
financial year. A major contributory factor to improved performance
has been the excellent work of inter-agency Case Progression Officers,
who seek to ensure that any outstanding actions are completed
in advance of the trial day and that files and evidence are sufficient
and satisfactory to be presented at court. A robust Pre-Trial
Review (PTR) System also operates in South Wales to ensure that
trials are not adjourned on the day, for example, readiness contracts
are signed by the Prosecution and Defence to increase the likelihood
of an effective trial at court.
6.4 The Execution of Court Warrants By The
Police
In 2001-02 there were 2,565 unexecuted court
warrants for the arrest of defendants who had failed to appear
at court in the South Wales Area. This figure has been reduced
dramatically to 1,030 through Area wide campaigns, which have
included "Operation Arrowhead" and "Operation Bail
Bandit". These campaigns have utilised an innovative campaign
of publishing the details of offenders who have failed to attend
court in the local press to show that the Criminal Justice System
will not tolerate those offenders who flout the law. It is intended
that such operations become a regular feature of the work of the
SWCJB with a further campaign due at the end of February 2005.
The South Wales Police Warrants Management Database,
a system that was recently endorsed as good practice by the Home
Office and purchased by numerous other Police Forces in England
& Wales, closely monitors operational Performance. Work is
underway on inter-agency strategies to address the forthcoming
government targets on enforcement for 2005-06, which include,
not only warrants for failure to appear at court, but also enforcement
of fines, community penalties and asset recovery.
6.5 Persistent Young Offenders (PYOs)
Persistent Young Offenders are defined as individuals
from 10 to 17 years of age who have been sentenced by a criminal
court on three or more separate occasions within three years of
the last sentence. The Government target is to reduce the average
time it takes to deal with a persistent young offender between
arrest and sentence to 71 days. Through close inter-agency working,
particularly the operation of Case Progression meetings in each
Court centre, SWCJB has consistently achieved its target for the
last 18 months. The latest figures show that it took 52 days to
finalise Persistent Young Offender cases in the South Wales Area.
6.6 Improving Public Satisfaction and Confidence
in the Criminal Justice System
The Government has defined the target to deliver
the sixth priority as:
"To improve public confidence in the
criminal justice system, including increasing that of ethnic minorities,
and increasing year on year the satisfaction of victims and witnesses,
whilst respecting the rights of the defendants."
The Board has developed a Public Satisfaction
& Confidence Delivery Plan covering actions up to March 2005
in the following areas:
— Victim and witness satisfaction;
— Community engagement, including race
issues
— Increasing public confidence in bringing
offenders to justice.
Three important initiatives are detailed as
follows:
6.6.1 CJS Educational Video Tackling Racism
In conjunction with a professional media company,
the SWCJB produced a video tackling the problem of racism in schools.
A group of students followed a fictitious racially aggravated
case from start to finish, which included visits to each of the
Criminal Justice agencies. The whole project was filmed and the
resulting video, which is introduced by Charles Falconer, Secretary
of State for Constitutional Affairs, has been recognised as "best
practice" by the National Criminal Justice Board. It has
also received a national Equality & Diversity Award from the
Crown Prosecution Service Head Quarters.
6.6.2 The Local Crime & Community Sentence
Project (LCCS)
The Local Crime Community Sentence (LCCS) project
aims to raise people's knowledge and understanding of the sentencing
powers of the courts and increase public confidence in the criminal
justice system's powers to punish offenders for their crimes.
The project, which is being sponsored by the South Wales Board,
will involve representatives from Probation and the Magistracy
presenting criminal justice case scenarios to a pre-arranged audience.
After the presentation, the audience will be asked to deliver
their sentence on the case, similar in many respects to a citizen's
jury.
6.6.3 Inter-Agency Race & Diversity Seminar
& SWCJB Subgroup
In December 2004, The SWCJB sponsored a race
and diversity seminar, which brought together senior practitioners
from each of the criminal justice agencies to look at how cross-agency
training can be delivered in these areas in the future. Linked
to this initiative is the continuation of the SWCJB Race &
Diversity Subgroup which is currently reviewing its Community
Engagement Programme designed to more clearly understand the needs
of various groups of people who often feel poorly served by the
criminal justice system, including ethnic minorities, gypsies,
travellers and other minority groups in society. The Community
Engagement Programme is just one strand of the SWCJB's Consultation
Strategy discussed later in this paper.
6.6.4 The Inter- Criminal Case Management
Programme (CCM)
It has long been recognised that the needs of
victims and witnesses should be at the heart of the criminal justice
system and that the efficiency of processes need to be improved.
To achieve this, the government has bought together three major
elements of reform into a Criminal Case Management Programme (CCM).
These are the Statutory Charging Scheme, the No Witness, No Justice
Project, and the Effective Trials Management Programme.
The Statutory Charging Scheme will serve to
ensure that Crown Prosecutors are available at selected police
stations to provide face-to-face legal advice to the police before
suspects are charged. Pilot studies elsewhere in the country have
established that bringing the expertise of police officers and
Crown Prosecutor's together at an early stage improves case preparation
and conviction rates by selecting the "right" charge.
Early guilty pleas by defendants also have the advantage of avoiding
victims and other witnesses having to attend court to give evidence.
The No Witness, No Justice (NWNJ) programme
requires Criminal Justice Boards to implement co-located Witness
Care Units in their localities, which conform to a number of minimum
standards for victim and witness care. After a crime is committed,
the police should assess the needs of a victim or witness when
they are first interviewed. The victim or witness should then
have the continued support of a Witness Care Officer from the
point of charge through to any outcome that may follow. Where
a victim or witness has particular difficulties—be it in
the absence of childcare on a trial day or fear of intimidation
by the accused—actions to alleviate this can be taken in
good time. And there should be no doubt in the mind of the victim
or witness to whom they should turn for assistance. By appointing
Witness Care Officers, victims and witnesses should also be kept
better informed of progress in their case and have the necessary
court-day support (for example special measures) to enable them
to concentrate on giving their best evidence in court.
The aim is to have implemented Witness Care
Units in Cardiff and Barry by 1 February 2005, Swansea by 2 April
2005 and Merthyr Tydfil by 1 July 2005.
7. THE ROLE
OF SWCJB IN
TACKLING CRIME
AND ANTI-SOCIAL
BEHAVIOUR
7.1 The SWCJB is also concerned with tackling
crime and anti-social behaviour and two important areas are outlined
below.
7.2 The Prolific and Priority Offender Scheme
Under the Government's previous Persistent Offender
Scheme, persistent offenders were nationally defined as someone
who was aged 18 or over, and who had six convictions for recordable
offences in the past 12 months. However, a national review of
the Persistent Offender Scheme last year recommended that local
Criminal Justice Areas should have greater responsibility for
identifying those offenders causing the greatest problems in their
communities.
Prolific offenders make up a small percentage
of the population but who commit a disproportionately large proportion
of serious crime. The new Prolific and Priority Offender Scheme
announced by the Government in June 2004 replaces the previous
scheme and will utilise locally agreed definitions of `persistence'
rather than a national definition. To continue this local theme,
the Strategy will be developed by Criminal Justice Boards together
with the Community Safety Partnerships. The Home Office issued
initial guidance at the end of July 2004 highlighting that the
scheme will consist of three strands designed to provide a more
holistic approach to the management of offenders. These are:
— Resettle and Rehabilitate.
The overall aim of the strategy is to target
approximately 15-20 of the most prolific offenders in each Community
Safety Partnership area and prevent them from re-offending. The
SWCJB and Community Safety Partnerships are working closely at
a strategic level to ensure that the Scheme is successfully implemented
in South Wales. This is an extremely complex venture as there
are three very different aspects to the scheme, which involve
numerous different agencies working together, some for the very
first time, and to tight timescales. There are also seven different
Community Safety Partnerships in South Wales and so the challenge
will be to ensure that the Scheme is adequately tailored to meet
the individual needs of each partnership and that good practice
is shared across all area of South Wales. A specific strategy
group consisting of Criminal Justice agency and Community Safety
Partnership members has been formed to help achieve this aim and
further information is provided in the "Links with Community
Safety Partners Section" on page 9.
7.3 Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs)
Sections 17 and 115 of the Crime and Disorder
Act 1999 tasked relevant agencies to look at ways of reducing
crime and disorder in their localities and to share information
with one another to assist in this process.
In South Wales, each of the Community Safety
Partnership Area's has a police and civilian ASBO Co-ordinator
whose role is to receive information on anti-social behaviour
incidents in the community. This is done directly by the public
via a dedicated contact telephone line to the co-ordinator or
indirectly through referrals from the various agencies. The co-ordinator
will then collate this information on a computerised system that
helps to determine the nature of anti-social behaviour incidents,
who is causing the problems, where they live and the number of
referrals that have been made against an individual over a specified
period of time. This information is used to decide whether or
not interventions should be made by the agencies, including pursuing
a court order if necessary.
South Wales has adopted a four-stage approach
to dealing with cases of anti-social behaviour incidents, though
there is a need to review and ensure standardisation of processes.
These stages are:
1. First referrals will lead to the generation
of a letter from the partnership to the individual accused of
anti-social behaviour;
2. After this, a second letter will be produced
(usually hand-delivered to the perpetrators house) explaining
that their behaviour is unacceptable and that action may be taken
to address it if it continues;
3. A further letter is generated and at this
stage decisions are made as to whether an acceptable behaviour
contract is appropriate (however, this contract has no legal force
and requires the consent of the individual concerned).
Finally, if the behaviour continues a serious
intervention may be undertaken ie Prohibited areas and restrictions
on movement may be imposed, for example an area may be defined
as a restricted for an individual and he may be banned from entering
the area or as a final measure an ASBO either stand alone or on
conviction would be implemented.
Whilst the majority of anti-social behaviour
incidents are dealt with in the Civil Courts, it has been realised
that local authorities do not always possess the necessary legal
expertise to deal with all cases that are referred to it. The
SWCJB have, therefore, endorsed the formation of an ASBO Legal
Group, Chaired by a specialist ASBO lawyer from the Crown Prosecution
Service.
The remit of the group is to develop legal expertise
in the area of Anti-social behaviour law and procedure and to
provide a network of support for its members in the advising,
preparation and application of the law through the courts. The
group will share best practise to enable a consistent approach
across the South Wales region as well as promoting joint multi-agency
working and cooperation. This group is unique in Wales and through
preliminary discussions with the Welsh Assembly has been considered
as being good practice and a model that other areas can follow.
The launch of this group is anticipated to act as a catalyst for
the other regions in Wales to follow suit and develop similar
groups.
The launch of this group is anticipated for
mid March 2005, with an invited audience from across Wales. The
launch will be especially relevant to each Chief Constable, LCJB
Chair, Local Authority Chief Executive and Partnership Director
who will all be asked to attend as well as community representatives.
In addition to this group, the SWCJB may consider
how ASBO information captured by local authorities can be more
readily accessed by various criminal justice agencies, because
such information could provide additional useful information to
criminal proceedings, though no formal decisions have yet been
taken in this area.
8. CONSULTATION
WITH STAKEHOLDERS
AND THE
PUBLIC
8.1 In order to understand the views of
stakeholders and local communities to help inform their work,
the SWCJB seeks to consult them about its work at relevant times.
A variety of methods have been used and are detailed as follows:
8.2 Criminal Justice Board Conferences
In April 2003, the South Wales Criminal Justice
Board organised a conference to mark its launch and explained
the role it would take in tackling crime for the year ahead. Approximately
500 participants attended the conference, including criminal justice
stakeholders, race and diversity groups and members of the public
and provided the opportunity to meet with Chief Officers from
each of the agencies and ask relevant questions.
The Board have discussed holding a similar conference
within the next year to discuss their work to date and the successes
which have been achieved through partnership working, and it is
hoped that such an event will offer the opportunity to further
explore views and opinions of the people it serves.
8.3 South Wales Citizens Panel
In order to understand the views of local communities
to help inform their work, the South Wales Criminal Justice Board
has teamed up with the Local Police Authority to form a Citizens
Panel, the first Criminal Justice Board in Wales to do so. Assisted
by a professional social research company, a panel of approximately
1,500 people will be recruited, fully reflecting the socio-economic
and demographic profile of the South Wales population. By the
end of March 2004, two survey questionnaires will have been undertaken
and results will be made available to members via newsletters
and to the public via the website.
8.4 Links with Community Safety Partnerships
Based on a mapping exercise that was recently
undertaken by SWCJB and the Cardiff Community Safety Partnership,
a report was produced on possible areas for collaborative working
in the future. A number of areas of mutual interest were identified
and it was agreed by Local Authority Chief Executives and Chief
Officers of the Criminal Justice Board that a specific working
group should be formed to review how criminal justice agencies
and Community Safety Partnerships should take relevant joint initiatives
forward. It was agreed that both SWCJB and Community Safety Partnerships
should keep each other properly informed of new initiatives and
open invitations will be provided to either side to attend relevant
meetings. Minutes of meetings will also be exchanged between the
SWCJB and the various Community Safety Partnerships.
8.5 Links with the Judiciary, Magistrates
and the Defence
Informal consultation is undertaken wherever
relevant with the Judiciary, Magistrates and the Defence to keep
them informed of the work of the SWCJB. This has taken the form
of ad-hoc meetings, such as the recent engagement with the three
resident judges in South Wales regarding the implications of the
Effective Trial Management Programme, and through circulation
of meetings of the Board.
8.6 Links with the Welsh Assembly
Whilst much of the work of the Criminal Justice
Board's is driven by central government, links have been established
with the Welsh Assembly. Regular meetings took place between the
previous Chair of the Board (Huw Heycock, Chief Crown Prosecutor)
and the previous Crime Reduction Director (David A'Herne) and
these have been strengthened through the recent creation of the
strategic group consisting of Criminal Justice Board, Community
Safety Partnership members and the new Crime Reduction Director
mentioned previously. The Welsh Assembly has contributed £8,000
towards the establishment of the Citizens Panel, which can be
jointly utilised by the Board and the Community Safety Partnerships.
9. CONCLUSION
As this paper hopefully illustrates, the South
Wales Criminal Justice Board has achieved a great deal since its
formation in April 2003. Now, over 18 months on, partnership working
between the respective criminal justice agencies and various other
stakeholders has become stronger and more effective and there
is no doubt that Criminal Justice Board's will play an important
role in tackling crime and anti-social behaviour and making South
Wales a safer place to live in the future.
Susan Hall
Chair of the South Wales Criminal Justice Board and
Chief Officer South Wales Probation Area
15 December 2004
Annex 2—South Wales LCJB Monthly
Performance Monitoring Table (November 2004)
Key for performance table
| Aim | No.
| Objective | Latest Performance
| Time Period | Target
| Traffic Light performance |
| 1. Narrowing the Justice Gap | 1.1
| Increase Offences Brought to Justice (OBTJ)
| 31773 OBTJ | FY to July 04 |
31899 OBTJ | 126 offences behind target
|
| 1.2 | Increase OBTJ by Prolific and Priority Offenders—targets not yet set by the government
| N/A | N/A | N/A
| N/A |
| 2. Ineffective Trials | 2.1
| Decrease ineffective trials in Magistrates'' Courts
| 19% | FY to Oct 04 | 23%
| 4% ahead of target |
| 2.2 | Decrease ineffective trials in Crown Courts
| 10.9% | FY to Sept 04 | 12.3%
| 1.4% ahead of target |
| 3. Execution of Warrants | 3.1
| Reduce the number of unexecuted warrants to 1200 by end of Dec 2004
| 1030 | FY to Oct 04 | 1200
| 170 warrants ahead of Dec 04 target |
| 4. Persistent Young Offender (PYOs) |
4.1 | Decrease time from arrest to sentence for PYOs
| 52 days (49 days for Q2 2004) | Month of August 04 (Apr-June 04)
| 71 days | 19 days ahead of target
|
| 5. Timeliness | 5.1 | Magistrates' court—adult guilty pleas
| 82% | Qtr ending June 04 |
80% to be dealt with in 50 days | 2% ahead of target
|
| 5.2 | Magistrates' court—adult trials
| 80% | Qtr ending June 04 |
80% to be dealt with in 128 days | Level with target
|
| 5.3 | Magistrates' court—adult committals
| 91% | Qtr ending June 04 |
80% to be dealt with in 84 days | 11% ahead of target
|
| 5.4 | Magistrates' court—youth guilty pleas
| 84% | Qtr ending June 04 |
80% to be dealt with in 42 days | 4% ahead of target
|
| 5.5 | Magistrates' court—youth trials
| 81% | Qtr ending June 04 |
80% to be dealt with in 92 days | 1% ahead of target
|
| 5.6 | Magistrates' court—youth committals
| 57% | Qtr ending June 04 |
80% to be dealt with in 60 days | 23% behind target
|
| 5.7 | Crown Court—Committal to trial
| 93% | F/Y to Oct 04 | 78% to be dealt with in 16 weeks
| 15% ahead of target |
| 5.8 | Crown Court—Sent from Magistrates' court to trial
| 94% | F/Y to Oct 04 | 78% to be dealt with in 26 weeks
| 16% ahead of target |
| 5.9 | Crown Court—Committals for sentence
| 95% | F/Y to Oct 04 | 78% to be dealt with in 10 weeks
| 17% ahead of target |
| 5.10 | Crown Court Appeals
| 96% | F/Y to Oct 04 | 78% to be dealt with in 14 weeks
| 18% ahead of target |
| 6. Charging Scheme | 6.1 |
Discontinuance Rates for Crown Court | 15.3%
| July-Sept 04 | Reduce to 12.1%
| 3.2% behind target |
| 6.2 | Discontinuance Rates for Magistrates' Court
| 16.5% | July-Sept 04 | Reduce to 14.5%
| 2% behind target |
| 6.3 | Guilty Plea Rates for Crown Court
| 60.1% | July-Sept 04 | Increase to 71.1%
| 11% behind target |
| 6.4 | Guilty Plea Rates for Magistrates' Court
| 61% | July-Sept 04 | Increase to 62.8%
| 1.8% behind target |
| 6.5 | Attrition Rates for Crown Court
| 23.7% | July-Sept 04 | Reduce to 23.7%
| Level with target |
| 6.6 | Attrition Rates for Magistrates' Court
| 21.6% | July-Sept 04 | Reduce to 24.5%
| 2.9% ahead of target |
| 7. Confidence | 7.1 | To improve public confidence in the effectiveness of the CJS to bring offenders to justice
| 39% | Year to June 2004 |
41% | 2% outside of target |
| 8. Victims and Witnesses | 8.1
| Relevant local data will be collected and reported shortly and SWCJB to consider target setting in future
| Questions included in Citizens Panel Survey: results available in January 05
| N/A | N/A | N/A
|
| | |
| | | |
Key for performance table
We must take urgent action if we are going to meet the target
We must take remedial action to improve performance
No remedial action required. Meeting the target
| 
