Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Attorney General
PROTOCOL WITH
PROSECUTION SERVICES
This note gives the Committee an indication
of how we propose to take forward the preparation of the protocol
with the prosecution services envisaged in Clause 3 of the above
draft Bill.
Clause 3 provides that the Attorney General
must, in consultation with the Directors (ie the Director of Public
Prosecutions, the Director of the Serious Fraud Office and the
Director of the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office), prepare
a protocol stating how the Attorney General and the Directors
are to exercise their functions in relation to each other. The
protocol will be published and laid before Parliament (Clause
3(3)).
The protocol is intended as an important component
in the package of proposed reforms to the Attorney General's role.
It will set out, in an authoritative public document and in more
detail than hitherto, how the statutory relationship of "superintendence"
between the Attorney General and the prosecuting authorities is
to operate. It will provide greater clarity both as between the
Attorney General and the Directors themselves, and for Parliament
and the public at large, about the respective roles and responsibilities
of the Attorney General and the Directors. The protocol will need
to be sufficiently specific in its terms to meet this aim of achieving
greater clarity, whilst being sufficiently flexible to meet the
varying activities and workloads of the prosecuting authorities
over time and so as not to require constant amendment (although
the protocol may of course be revised and Clause 3(4) of the draft
Bill requires the Attorney General to keep it under review from
time to time).
Officials from my Office and the three prosecuting
departments are currently in discussion about the proposed protocol
and what it should say. It is therefore too soon to provide an
indication of detailed drafting. However Clause 3(3) of the draft
Bill sets out the sorts of provisions which the protocol may cover.
Over and above that, we envisage that the protocol will include
provisions about:
— The setting of the strategic direction
for the prosecuting authorities, the setting of their objectives
and the drawing up of their business plans
— The ways in which the prosecuting
authorities report to the Attorney General on their activities.
— The circumstances and ways in which
the prosecuting authorities are to consult the Attorney General
or provide her or him with information
— The role of the Attorney General
and the prosecuting authorities in relation to prosecution casework,
including the handling of those cases in which the Attorney's
statutory consent is required for a prosecution; and the handling
of any case involving a direction by the Attorney General on national
security grounds (Clause 12 of the draft Bill)
— The roles of the Attorney General
and the prosecuting authorities in contributing to criminal justice
policy to ensure (among other things) it properly reflects the
impact on prosecutorial operational practice
— The Attorney General's accountability
to Parliament for the work of the prosecuting authorities, and
how the Directors support the Attorney in that role.
A worked-up draft of the protocol will be available
to support debate when the Bill comes before Parliament. I hope
the Committee finds this helpful.
I am writing in similar terms to the Rt Hon
Michael Jabez Foster MP, Chairman of the Joint Committee on the
draft Constitutional Renewal Bill.
Rt Hon Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC
1 June 2008
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