Special Report
1. The Justice Committee published its Ninth Report
of Session 2008-09, the Crown Prosecution Service: gatekeeper
of the criminal justice system, on 6th of August 2009 (HC
186).
2. We received a response from the Government on
6th January 2010.
3. We made the following comments about the performance
of the Attorney General's Office in this regard in our report
of our work in Session 2008-09:
"...we
wish to record our dissatisfaction with the timeliness of replies
to our reports from the Attorney General's Office. We reported
on certain provisions within the draft Constitutional Renewal
Bill in June 2008 but did not receive a substantive response
until July 2009, more than 12 months later. We recognise that
some Government responses to select committee reports are sensibly
deferred if they relate to major initiatives or proposals which
are being finalised within a reasonable timeframe. However, in
this instance we see no case for delaying a substantive response
for over a year.
As an isolated incident this might not have drawn
comment but our concerns have been exacerbated by another delay;
this time in the Attorney General's response to our report on
the work of the Crown Prosecution Service, published in August
2009, to which a reply was not received until 6 January 2010.
Moreover, in the intervening period the Attorney General asked
us to hold a pre-appointment hearing for a new HM Chief Inspector
of the CPS, a task we are prevented from undertaking as effectively
as we would wish without the Government's response to our report
in this area. The absence of a Government response also reduces
the value of debate on a report in the Chamber or Westminster
Hall and makes it more difficult to secure time on the floor of
the House to follow-up these important issues. The Attorney General
should bear in mind that, by long-standing convention, government
departments have agreed that replies to select committee reports
should be made within two months of publication. The performance
of the Attorney General's Office in replying to our reports has
been poor and has hindered our work."[1]
4. We welcome the thorough response we have now received
from the Government to our conclusions and recommendations on
the Crown Prosecution Service. That response, and a letter from
the Solicitor General relating to its submission, are appended
below.
1 Justice Committee, 2nd Report, 2009-10, Work of the
Committee in 2008-09, HC 233, paragraphs 12-13. Back
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