A Monthly Publication

 ... ABOUT THE CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE?
By Robert Warner

 The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the organisation responsible for prosecuting criminal cases investigated by the police in England and Wales.  Nationally there are 42 areas and in Norfolk the CPS is based in Norwich with over 80 staff including 30 lawyers.

Our work takes us to Courts and police stations in Norwich, King’s Lynn, Great Yarmouth, Thetford, Swaffham and Cromer.

Each year we handle around 14,000 cases in the Magistrates' court and 1,600 cases in the Crown Court. In the last year our average conviction rate was 87% in the Magistrates' court and 89% in the Crown Court.

Not everybody will have had direct experience of dealing with the CPS but our work affects all members of the public and not just those who are victims or witnesses of crime. 

The cases that are prosecuted are varied; ranging from motoring matters to serious offences such as murder.  All cases however have an impact on the community whether in terms of addressing local problems or maintaining public confidence that offenders are brought to justice.

Here in Norfolk current priorities include:

· Championing justice and the rights of all victims and witnesses

· Increasing public confidence by developing work on prosecuting all Violence against Women crimes

· Depriving criminals of proceeds of crime by confiscating assets

The work of individual lawyers changes from day to day and involves advising the police prior to charge, building prosecution files and presenting cases both in the Magistrates’ and Crown Courts.

Lawyers need to take account of local problems and crime hot-spots which will help our decision-making process.

Recently we have introduced the role of Community Prosecutors whose role is to engage with local communities to be aware of and address their concerns.

This is a new initiative for the CPS, which is currently being trialled in a number of localities before being rolled out nationally, and will identify how modern prosecutors should engage with communities about criminal justice concerns. The three main aims of the Community Prosecutor launch and approach are:

· More community-aware casework decisions, by sharing with colleagues the concerns of local communities which may be taken into account when considering cases.

· Greater CPS involvement in problem solving of local crime and disorder priorities.

· Being more visible to communities and other agencies responding to local crime and disorder concerns.

In Norfolk the lawyers have established links to the Norfolk Constabulary Neighbourhood Policing Teams.  This is to ensure that prosecutors are well informed about matters of local concern, have a good understanding of the communities they serve and have stronger links with them, as part of the Prosecution team approach.

We continue to look for other ways to engage with our local communities.

I am the link Community Prosecutor for the Hunstanton and Burnham area.  I recently had the opportunity to introduce myself and the Community Prosecutor approach to the Hunstanton Town Council and I hope that this article helps raise public awareness of what we do and that we want to improve links with our communities.

One of our recent initiatives was providing hospitals and doctor’s surgeries with information about support for victims of domestic violence.  Doctors and nurses are often the first professionals to see the victims of domestic violence so we have distributed a CPS guide to helping victims and witnesses together with other useful contacts.

The New Year will see the continuation of lawyers going into local schools and discussing the criminal justice system with school children.

We know that in order to make the right decisions on charging and prosecuting cases, we need to better understand the needs and expectations of our local communities.

You can find out more about the CPS by looking at our website on http://www.cps.gov.uk/eastern/

If there are any community events that we should be aware of, where we may be able to have some input, please contact our Community Prosecutor Administrator Laura on CLOAKING

If you wish to contact me about anything in this article my email address is CLOAKING