Departmental Accountability (Hansard, 2 December 1996)

§ 32. Mr. Flynn
To ask the Attorney-General what new plans he has to improve the financial accountability of his Department to Parliament. [5201]

§ The Attorney-General
The Treasury Solicitor's Department, which became an executive agency in April, has produced its first business plan for the year 1996–97 and will publish an annual report and accounts, in common with the Government property lawyers. The Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office already produce statutory reports.

§ Mr. Flynn
Why did the bill for hospitality and promotion in the Attorney-General's Department and in the agencies increase this year by 10 per cent.?

§ The Attorney-General
I shall have to ask the hon. Gentleman to table a specific written question on a matter of that detail. If he does so, I will answer him.

§ Sir Ivan Lawrence
Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that, in his Department, as in all others, it is red tape that clogs speedy processes and makes financial accountability to the House so difficult? Will he congratulate Derbyshire police on having shown how they can process a juvenile shoplifter in under three and a quarter hours, when other far less efficient police forces are unable to do so in under three days?

§ The Attorney-General
My hon. and learned Friend raises an important point. To be fair to the other police forces, Derbyshire police showed that there had been a misunderstanding the previous Saturday when a journalist wandered into a police station in London, and was under the impression that it required 41 forms to cause a guilty juvenile shoplifter to be brought to court. That turned out to be wholly fictitious. The 41 forms were the total number of forms that could be used in that police station for any reason. To deal with a guilty plea of that nature requires five forms for an adult and an extra form for a juvenile. That point was helpfully brought out by my hon. and learned Friend and by the Derbyshire police.

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
Does the Attorney-General agree that the proper financial accountability of his Department will depend in part upon it being shown that the Crown Prosecution Service is able to provide good value for money? How can that be provided while swingeing cuts continue to be made in the number of lawyers who are employed by the CPS so that it is not able to deal with all the cases that come before it with due dispatch?

§ The Attorney-General
Uncharacteristically, the hon. and learned Gentleman is wide of the mark on the facts. He will realise, if he examines the matter, that there are currently more than 2,000 Crown prosecutors, which is double the number that there were when the CPS was established, and that that figure is not far short of the maximum. While the current budgets are demanding, they are also realistic and I am confident, given the work load that is coming forward for the CPS, that it has the resources to do the job.