Dramatic collapse in crimes solved is failing victims and demands reform – Labour’s Charging Commission says

A ‘chasm’ in joint working between police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been exposed by an expert commission set up by Labour. 

Established to find ways to reverse the dramatic collapse in crimes solved under the Conservatives, the Charging Commission is recommending key reforms to both services to ‘counter abject political failure’ and to ensure delivery for victims.  

The Commission, made up of former senior police chiefs and prosecutors, has said the police and CPS must “end the blame game”, and is calling for a new legal duty on chief constables and chief crown prosecutors in England and Wales to reduce delays and friction between the two agencies while cases are being investigated and charging decisions considered. It warns that a failure to adopt new joint-working arrangements would be “a dereliction of duty on the part of both public services”.

The Commission also recommends empowering police forces with a strong track record to charge domestic abuse suspects in situations where releasing them from custody could endanger the victim and where the CPS has been unable to make a charging decision in time. 

And it proposes powerful new measures to support victims of domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault throughout the criminal justice and court process by providing the right for survivors to have their specialist support adviser sitting alongside them whilst giving evidence. 

Labour established the Commission in September 2023 in response to alarming statistics showing that under the Conservatives, the proportion of crimes resulting in a charge had plummeted by almost two-thirds since 2015 and the number of days taken to make a charging decision had trebled.

Chaired by the former Victims’ Commissioner, Dame Vera Baird KC, the Commission concludes that there has been a breakdown in confidence and communication between the police and CPS, which is having a woeful impact on victims, with officers and prosecutors often refusing to speak to one another. 

The problems are made worse by burdensome bureaucracy and inconsistent or poor quality case files prepared by the police. It has led to victims withdrawing from the process at a near record rate – 1.6 million dropped out last year alone, the panel found.

Labour says that under the Conservatives, the criminal justice system has experienced more than a decade of damage and decline, with over 90 per cent of crimes now going unsolved.

The Commission was established by Yvette Cooper, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary and Emily Thornberry, Shadow Attorney General, to help deliver on the party’s mission to reverse the collapse in the proportion of crimes charged and rebuild confidence in policing and the criminal justice system to record levels.

During his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions, Labour leader Keir Starmer increased the charge rate every year, introduced modernising reforms using new technology, and put victims at the heart of the criminal justice process, introducing the Victims’ Right to Review in 2013.

Labour says it would bring that same leadership and determination to deliver for victims into government.

The five key recommendations from the Commission are:

• A statutory duty on chief constables and chief crown prosecutors to work together to deliver for victims, including a requirement to develop new Joint Justice Arrangements in every area and devise an annual Joint Charging Action Plan.
• Annual joint inspections to ensure the CPS and police improve communication, reduce delays, bolster case file quality and drive up the charge rate.
• Changing data protection laws so police no longer have to redact case files before they are sent to the CPS, saving thousands of officer hours every year.
• Allow the six police forces with the highest file quality standards to further pilot charging high-risk domestic abuse suspects, following the success of a scheme piloted by the Chief Constable in West Yorkshire.
• Give vulnerable victims in domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault cases the right to have specialist support advisors with them throughout the criminal justice process and beside them in court.

Labour has accepted the Commission’s recommendations in full. 

Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, said:

“After 14 years of Conservative government, more criminals are being let off and more victims are being let down. The catastrophic collapse in the proportion of crimes being charged must be reversed if victims are to have confidence in the system again – and the police and CPS must both play their part in turning things around.

“This expert Commission found a breakdown in communication and confidence between the two agencies which is resulting in devastating delays and poor outcomes for victims. Labour will implement its common-sense recommendations to ensure the criminal justice system delivers for the people it is there to serve.”

The Commission received evidence from the College of Policing, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, victims and survivors’ charities along with the CPS and a number of police forces.

Some officers said they did not even have contact details for the prosecutors working on their cases, meaning they could communicate only through a ‘ping pong’ of electronic memos, contributing to disastrous delays.

One lawyer who had been working for the CPS for over three years said they had never spoken to a police officer. Many of those who contributed to the Commission were nostalgic for the days when police and prosecutors worked alongside each other in the same building and could talk through difficult cases face-to-face.

The Commission says that with the development of remote working technology, co-location is not necessary but that virtual joint-working units should become the norm in every area, to swiftly resolve queries and drive forward progress on cases. The Commission expects these Joint Justice Arrangements and Action Plans to address key areas like driving communication and collaboration between the local police and CPS, and improving the quality of police case files through improved supervision by senior officers or the introduction of criminal justice units.

Emily Thornberry MP, Labour’s Shadow Attorney General, said:

“The paramount concern of the police and CPS should be delivering for victims, not defending their own turf. That means working hand in glove throughout the process, with joint action plans to reduce delays and friction, and get charge rates back up to where they should be.

“It also means every individual playing their part in getting the best result. Given that junior police officers may only take three or four cases to court each year, it is essential that – when they do – they are supervised by experienced police officers, so that the quality of evidence provided to the CPS allows them to make the right charging decisions in a timely manner.

“Closer collaboration, better communication, and stronger supervision, that is how we are going to get the improved outcomes that all victims deserve.”

Evidence received by the Commission also suggests that the lack of any shared performance metrics is pulling police and the CPS in different directions. It proposes a new system, under which the police and CPS are annually assessed in a joint inspection by the two watchdogs for each sector – HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate. They would measure progress on the delivery and implementation of Joint Charging Action Plans and hold both agencies jointly accountable for driving improvement.

To streamline the pre-charge process and reduce delays in the system, the Commission has backed Labour’s plans to amend data protection rules which prevent police forces from sharing unredacted case files with the CPS. At the moment, thousands of officer hours every year are spent, in effect, Tipp-Exing out information just to get an initial charging decision.

The Policing Productivity Review published in November 2023 found that this simple change – treating the police and CPS as a single entity for the purposes of case file management – would save police at least 210,000 hours. That’s how long is spent redacting files which result in no further action from the CPS – time which could be much better spent attending 100,000 domestic abuse incidents or 13,000 burglaries.

The Commission has also made the case for making full use of emergency police charging powers in cases of high-risk domestic abuse, where keeping somebody in custody is necessary for the protection of a vulnerable victim, and where the CPS, despite its best efforts, are unable to charge before the custody clock runs out. 

The model, trialled in West Yorkshire Police, requires every emergency police charging decision to be approved by an inspector and trained police decision-maker, before being sent to the CPS to be ratified. In West Yorkshire, every such charging decision in domestic abuse cases has been ratified by prosecutors since the pilot began.

The Commission is absolutely clear that charging a defendant quickly is an essential part of safeguarding in domestic abuse cases, getting them quickly into the court process and protecting the victim at the earliest opportunity. It would prevent the scenario where a high-risk domestic abuser has to be released on bail because, despite its best efforts, the CPS is unable to meet its three-hour target in such cases. 

The Commission says that when victims have the courage to report domestic abuse, often after several incidents, they should be able to expect a swift response to keep them safe. The Commission has recommended rolling out this pilot in six more high-performing police forces – those with the best levels of file quality compliance – and with a specific focus on domestic abuse.

In order to maintain victim confidence throughout the criminal justice process, the Commission has also called on Labour to change the law to allow vulnerable victims to have specialist support advisors, known as ISVAs and IDVAs, sitting alongside them in court as part of ‘special measures’ provisions. This would apply in all circumstances where a victim is testifying, including in private, behind screens or from a link.

Dame Vera Baird KC, the Commission’s Chair, added:

“The calamitous collapse in charging under the Conservatives has had a detrimental impact on victims of crime, and we welcome Labour’s mission to reverse this trend. 

The Commission surveyed the key participants in the criminal justice system and our expert commissioners have worked with that evidence to analyse why there has been such a catastrophic drop in criminal charging and to unlock some solutions.

“These new proposals will bring a boost to charging by bringing CPS, police and victims’ organisations closer together with shared duties, through cross-agency collaboration and in a joint effort to remove inter-agency friction and focus wholly on the public interest”.

Ends

Notes:

Members of the Commission:

• Dame Vera Baird KC, former Victims’ Commissioner (chair)
  Alison Lowe OBE, Deputy Mayor for Crime and Policing, West Yorkshire
• Stephen Otter QPM, former Chief Constable
• Drusilla Sharpling CBE, former Chief Crown Prosecutor

Full Commission recommendations:

1. Place a new statutory duty on Chief Constables and Chief Crown Prosecutors to work together to deliver for victims, including a requirement to develop new Joint Justice Arrangements in every area to drive collaboration at a local level, and to devise an annual Joint Charging Action Plan, to reduce delays and friction between the agencies, improve police file quality, manage cases more effectively and drive up the charge rate. We would expect Joint Justice Arrangements and Joint Charging Action Plans to include:

• Measures to ensure that improvements to joint working agreed at a strategic level translate into operational improvements on the frontline.
• Police action to improve the quality of case files submitted to the CPS and to ensure compliance with national standards, by strengthening supervision and quality assurance processes. This could involve using specially trained police officers or criminal justice teams within forces responsible for oversight of case files and contact with the CPS.
• Better methods of communication between investigators and prosecutors so they can resolve problems more easily and progress cases faster. This may involve police and prosecutors speaking virtually or in face-to-face appointments. They should build on best practice for collaborative working, such as early case progression conferences and joint triage units.

2. The Home Secretary and Attorney General to commission an annual joint inspection by the relevant criminal justice inspectorates (HMCPSI and HMICFRS), to assess progress on the delivery and implementation of Joint Charging Action Plans in each area, and to hold both agencies jointly accountable for driving improvements in the charge rate, joint-working arrangements and outcomes for victims. Each report will be publicly available and each area graded as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. Chief Constables and Chief Crown Prosecutors will have 6 months from the creation of the duty to develop a Joint Charging Action Plan and will be assessed on progress after 12 months (and annually thereafter).
3. Reduce pre-charge bureaucracy and minimise delays in the system by removing redaction rules which currently prevent forces from sharing unredacted case files with the CPS under data protection legislation. This simple legislative change to the Data Protection Act (to treat the police and the CPS as a single entity for the purposes of case file management) will, according to the Policing Productivity Review, save 210,000 police officer hours, time which could be spent attending 100,000 domestic abuse incidents or 13,000 burglaries. Files which progress to trial will still be redacted. The issue of redaction was voted the highest priority for the NPCC at the end of 2022 and follows a campaign by the Police Federation.
4. Extend the current successful use of emergency provisions for the police to charge high-risk domestic abuse where they are satisfied that remanding the accused in custody is necessary for the protection of a vulnerable victim, and where the CPS cannot charge in time. This model, piloted by the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, involves applying CPS guidance for emergency police charging powers where a defendant in a high-risk domestic abuse case is under arrest in custody, but where the CPS is unable to charge before the defendant must – by law – be charged or released. West Yorkshire Police have invested in a cohort of trained police decision-makers and emergency charging decisions are made by an inspector only after the investigating officer, the supervisor and a trained decision-maker has recommended a charge. The provisions require the CPS to ratify every decision after the initial police charge, and they have done so in every domestic abuse case decision made by West Yorkshire Police during its pilot. Charging the defendant quickly is an essential part of safeguarding in domestic abuse cases, accelerating the court process and protecting the victim. In West Yorkshire, the pilot has covered all crime cases, including domestic abuse, but the Commission specifically recommends rolling out this pilot in six more high-performing police forces – those with the best levels of file quality compliance – and with a specific focus on domestic abuse in order to safeguard vulnerable victims.
5. Boost victim confidence in the criminal justice system by giving vulnerable victims the right to have specialist support advisors with them in court. Labour should amend the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 so that “special measures” provisions automatically include the right for Independent Sexual Violence Advisers, Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and other accredited representatives from local victims’ charities to accompany complainants throughout their case and, in particular to be with them when they are giving evidence in court. This would apply in all circumstances where a complainant is testifying, including in private, behind screens or from a link.