Memorandum submitted by Revenue and Customs
Prosecutions Office
REVENUE AND CUSTOMS PROSECUTION OFFICE SUBMISSION
TO THE JUSTICE COMMITTEE INQUIRING INTO THE CROWN PROSECUTION
SERVICE
1. This submission is to assist the Committee's
consideration of how the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) contributes
to and fits into the Criminal Justice System, how it relates to
and shares information and how it works with the Revenue and Customs
Prosecutions Office (RCPO).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2. RCPO is pleased to report that the relationship
between the CPS, the public prosecuting agency and this, the specialist
government prosecuting agency, is good. Both organisations are
fully engaged in a variety of government initiatives, working
and policy groups. An excellent example of this co-operation which
has translated into an operational system is the Hermes Project.
This created and thereafter introduced a new Human Resources (HR)
database (Trent) and an integrated payroll system. The acquisition
and implementation of the project was achieved within a joint
project framework, the contributors were all members of the agencies
that fall under the aegis of the Attorney General's Office. This
was governed by a joint project board and combined project team
with individual Departments taking the lead on specific elements.
3. Both organisations are continuing to
work together on ongoing projects and within various working groups.
One new project is the setting up of the "Prosecutors Action
Zone" which will appear on the Legal Information Online Network
(LION) site (a fuller description of the site follows later in
the paper). The aim is to ensure the effective sharing of the
best resources from each department in a logical framework. CPS
and RCPO are leading respectively on the Disclosure and International
Law areas of the site.
4. Additionally, RCPO is aware of many instances
of individual lawyers from each organisation making direct approaches
to colleagues in the other, for assistance or to seek a referral
to individuals who, for example, hold an expertise with regard
to a particular area of law or procedure. Both RCPO and CPS have
particular areas of expertise and both organisations are generous
to colleagues in other prosecuting agencies, willingly sharing
this knowledge and expertise.
INTRODUCTION TO
RCPO
5. The RCPO was established as an independent
prosecuting authority in April 2005.
6. RCPO is a specialist prosecutor whose
cases encompass income tax and value added tax (VAT) fraud, excise
and duty fraud on oils, tobacco and alcohol, money laundering,
strategic exports and drug smuggling. The cases that RCPO prosecute
are investigated by either Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
or the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
7. RCPO also deals with the restraint and
confiscation of criminal assets, so that criminals do not benefit
from the proceeds of crime and resources are removed from the
criminal economy.
8. Prosecutions form the core of our operations.
Prosecutions help to protect tax revenues, protect local communities
from the harm done by drugs, sustain a strong economy and ensure
that the UK is considered a good place to do business.
FACTUAL INFORMATION
THAT THE
COMMITTEE SHOULD
BE AWARE
OF HIGH
LEVEL INTER-DEPARTMENTAL
WORKING
9. Officials from the Law Officers Departments
(LODs) are working together with officials from the Attorney General's
Office to produce a draft of a protocol that will govern the Attorney's
superintendence of the prosecution agencies. The recommendation
for the protocol was made as a result of the review carried out
into the role of the Attorney General's role to which the Directors
of RCPO, CPS and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) made a joint submission.
10. Both RCPO and CPS have been prominent
in their support of the Attorney General's review of fraud. Both
have provided personnel to the review and work together to good
effect on various working groups charged with implementing the
review.
BACK OFFICE
JOINT WORKING
11. The Hermes Project is the introduction
of a new HR database (Trent) and integrated payroll through shared
working across CPS, Treasury Solicitors (T.Sols) and the SFO.
The LODs have worked together to share their
expertise for the greater benefit of all involved. The project
has delivered to timetable the elements of core Human Resources
pay, absence and training, all underpinned by improved management
reporting. The LODs have agreed at least 80% commonality of processes
across departments in these areas. The LODs are now working on
delivering the elements of Performance Management and employee
and manager self service with the possibility of a Recruitment
module.
The procurement has been achieved through a
joint procurement exercise with the four LODs. The acquisition
and implementation of the project has been achieved within a joint
project framework governed by a joint project board and combined
project team with individual Departments taking the lead on specific
elements.
Confiscation and Restraint Joint Working
12. RCPO and CPS work well together on proceeds
of crime issues. CPS has offered RCPO places on their training
courses.
13. CPS chair a bi-monthly Proceeds of Crime
Act (POCA) user group, at which RCPO together with SFO, Crown
Office and the Department of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland
(DPPNI) review recent cases and discuss issues of common concern.
14. RCPO and CPS are working together on
a review of the panel of receivers and will continue to do so.
15. RCPO and CPS regularly discuss matters
of common concern. For instance, RCPO invited CPS to a conference
in order to review the basis of benefit calculations in drugs
cases.
16. RCPO and CPS share case-specific information
where cases overlap. This relates to both the prosecution of criminal
cases and the management of cases which have a restraint and or
confiscation element.
PROSECUTION OF
CASES JOINT
WORKING
17. Where both agencies may have an interest
in prosecuting a matter the Prosecutors' Convention is invoked
in order to decide which agency is best placed to either prosecute
the matter or to lead in the prosecution of the matter. Each agency
will also advise the other in cases where the specialist knowledge
of one may assist the other. This is particularly so where cases
involve offences of complex direct and indirect tax fraud/ money
laundering. RCPO and the Criminal Taxes Unit of HMRC have provided
advice and guidance to the CPS in relation to this work. The CPS
guidance to lawyers regarding prosecuting firearms offences has
proved invaluable to RCPO.
CONSENT WORK
18. If the CPS seek to prosecute for customs
offences eg drug smuggling or VAT Fraud—then consent is
often sought from the Director of RCPO who considers all such
matters personally. Good and effective working relationships have
been established between the two organisations. There is regular
contact between them to ensure that all such cases progress smoothly
and effectively to the benefit of all CJS stakeholders.
WORK REFERRED
BY THE
SERIOUS ORGANISED
CRIME AGENCY
(SOCA)
19. RCPO and CPS both prosecute cases that
are investigated by SOCA. Cases are shared between them as per
the joint guidance issued by the Director of RCPO and the Director
of Public Prosecutions.
INSTANCES OF
CO -OPERATION
IN DEVISING
AND DELIVERING
JOINT TRAINING
AND LEGAL GUIDANCE
20. Both agencies are fully involved in
the setting up of the "Prosecutors Action Zone" which
will appear on the Legal Information Online Network (LION) site.
The site is an online network which provides shared information
for lawyers across Government to access. Several government departments
contribute to the site which has a team of dozens of authors and
editors. The site is multifunctional, providing information in
relation to policy and practice; there is a database of government
lawyers and there is also access to an online database of contacts
for government lawyers and legal trainees.
21. The aim of the zone is to combine and
amalgamate the most useful information from each prosecuting department
in various areas of law. This should ensure the effective sharing
of the best resources from each department in a logical framework.
This will enable all government lawyers, who are looking for assistance
in an area with which they are unfamiliar, to be able to access
specialised tried and tested advice and guidance upon which they
can rely. CPS and RCPO are leading respectively on the Disclosure
and International Law areas of the site.
22. Last year CPS ran a course for their
Higher Court Advocates (HCAs) on which there were some spare places,
which they offered to RCPO. This year, CPS has been offered a
training day by KPMG, which they in turn offered RCPO places on.
23. Both agencies are currently working
together in order to devise and deliver training on the law concerning
firearms.
STAFF SECONDMENT
24. RCPO has welcomed a CPS lawyer on a
six month secondment into their International and Policy and Advisory
Division (IPAD), enabling the lawyer to pursue personal development
and to facilitate greater mutual understanding of the areas of
work and issues facing the two organisations.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO
THE COMMITTEE
25. RCPO has no recommendations to make
to the committee but confirm the view that there are good relations
between these two complimentary prosecuting agencies, each working
in their own specialist field.
David Green QC
Director
Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office
November 2008
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