There is no “cherry-picking” of cases in the CPS
Following criticism from senior police officers of the Crown Prosecution Service, Duncan Woodhead says justice can only be served when police and prosecutors work together, and all parts of the system are properly funded and resourced.
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Twice in recent months, the FDA has been called upon to defend our members in the Crown Prosecution Service from criticism from senior police officers – including the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police himself – over the organisation’s approach to charging decisions. Firstly, three serving Chief Constables called for responsibility for charging decisions to be taken away from prosecutors and put in the hands of police. This was followed by Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley accusing the CPS of “cherry-picking” cases.
These attacks ignore the fundamental point that the CPS, much like our police forces, continues to suffer from a lack of resource and years of devastating underinvestment in our criminal justice system. Hardworking FDA members and their fellow prosecutors are often working through the night from home to provide charging advice and decisions, fulfilling their obligations under the Code for Crown Prosecutors to assess whether there is a reasonable prospect of conviction for each case sent to them by the police.
Poor file quality, including a paucity of evidence, means that some of the cases presented to the CPS simply cannot be successfully prosecuted, and police should be working with prosecutors to avoid this and to improve the quality of case files presented. Prosecutors often find themselves presented with mountains of material to examine, from social media to body-worn camera footage, and the police should be listening to CPS concerns and ensuring evidence is focused, allowing decisions to be made in a more-timely and less-resource intensive way.
It is a waste of taxpayer’s money, and justice is not served, if we are prosecuting cases where the evidence is not there; raising the expectations of victims and witnesses and holding defendants in custody who are subsequently acquitted. Or worse still, a judge throws out a case before it’s put before a jury due to a lack of evidence, with the defendant having spent months on remand, and victims and witnesses having prepared themselves for a trial that doesn’t take place.
Yet, for all the challenges faced by FDA members in the CPS, not least budgetary constraints, conviction rates have increased, and attrition rates have dropped since it took responsibility for charging high-level offences and incidents of hate crime nearly twenty years ago. Every case referred is reviewed – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – to reach a fair, consistent, and transparent decision that is independent of the police who have investigated the offence.
There is no “cherry-picking”, and it would serve no-one to return to a system that was proven not to work. Instead, it would serve everyone, especially victims of crime and their families, if government addressed the devasting impact of cuts, and ensured that all parts of the criminal justice system are funded and resourced properly.
Duncan Woodhead is the FDA’s National Officer for the Crown Prosecution Service
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