CPS and police in dock over failures

Cases were discharged in magistrates' courts because prosecutors were not ready to proceed – mainly because police evidence was late to arrive, evidence was missing or files were reviewed too late by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)– the audit found.

Victims of crimes including burglary, theft and affray were also kept in the dark by prosecutors, with more than one in seven whose cases were discharged never receiving any explanation from the CPS.

Chief Inspector Michael Fuller said: "The CPS needs to focus its efforts to improve the handling of cases which are committed to the Crown Court.

"Failure to serve timely evidence is leading to cases being discharged and ultimately these cases not being brought to justice. Performance must be improved if the CPS is to ensure that victims of crime are to receive justice."

The abandoned prosecutions cost the CPS 652,946.06 in 2009/10, based on an average cost of 302.57 per case, the audit by Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) found. Police costs were not assessed.

The inspectors examined 82 cases which involved victims and in 13 of these, they "did not receive any explanation "on why the case was discharged".

"The types of cases in which the victim had not been contacted at any time by any agency included burglary, theft and affray," the inspectors said.

And in seven of 21 cases where the CPS wrote to the victims and mentioned the possibility of reinstatement of the charges, including cases of serious assault and burglary, "there was no further contact with the victims to inform them that a decision had been made not to reinstate the case".

The report also found the CPS has "no national guidance on the reinstatement of discharged committals".

"Outstanding work on these cases should be followed up and they should be treated with as much urgency as any other case but this is not the reality," the inspectors said.

"A lack of action by the CPS and the police after discharge has led to cases not being reinstated due to the length of time that has elapsed."

The inspectors called for the CPS to emphasise the importance of full files of evidence to the police, to put in place a system to monitor the progress of cases awaiting reinstatement, and to set out good practice guidance regarding keeping victims informed.

The figures also showed forensic evidence was missing in almost one in 10 of these cases.

But inspectors who looked at 119 of these cases found "the quality of the police files appeared to be a much greater issue than the national CPS data suggests".

Analysis showed 35 per cent of these were discharged because no files had been received from the police but in reality many of the files had been sent but essential evidence was missing.

Concerns were also raised about "inexperienced lawyers providing charging advice that contributed to problems with committal file preparation".

A CPS spokesman said: "There is much good work going on across the CPS, but this is an area which needs attention.

"While the proportion of discharged committals is small and going down – it reduced from 1.8 per cent to 1.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2010 – it is still too high."

The CPS spokesman added that the service was looking at the HMCPSI recommendations "as a top priority".