§ 32. Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire)If he will make a statement on measures to improve the efficiency of the Crown Prosecution Service. [122434]
§ The Solicitor-General (Mr. Ross Cranston)The Crown Prosecution Service has a number of initiatives in place to improve efficiency within the service. A major programme of IT modernisation will provide basic IT tools and enable staff to be connected electronically to each other, the police and the Government secure intranet.
The CPS is developing joint administrations with the police—criminal justice units—to prepare magistrates courts cases more efficiently. Similar arrangements are being developed for the establishment of trial units, which will focus on and raise the standard of preparation of Crown court cases.
The CPS, working closely with the police and the courts, is playing a significant part in the effective implementation of the provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. In many cases offenders are brought to court the day after charge. Across much of England and Wales, 60 per cent. of cases are now completed at the first hearing.
§ Mr. PatersonThe Solicitor-General missed out the victims of crime. Who measures whether they are happy with the efficiency of the CPS?
§ The Solicitor-GeneralAs I have said on previous occasions, victims are central to the policies that we are adopting. We take into account the role of victims. We have instituted pilot studies so that the CPS can operate more effectively with victims and with witnesses. I confess to the House that the pilots have revealed some difficulties in the CPS adopting a more central role, but 1108 we are working on that. We hope that, with more resources, we will be able to put the CPS at the centre of a more victim-oriented criminal justice system.
§ Mr. Paul Flynn (Newport, West)Would not the efficiency of the CPS be improved if there were fewer vexatious prosecutions, such as those that I listed to one of my hon. and learned Friend's fellow Ministers? I refer to prosecutions against people who use natural cannabis for severe pain. Of the last prosecutions, every one has been thrown out by the juries, who exercised good sense and decided that people who were seriously ill and seeking relief from pain should not be regarded as criminals, prosecuted and imprisoned. When will there be a simple change in the law to allow natural cannabis to be prescribed in the same way as heroin is prescribed legally now?
§ The Solicitor-GeneralI refute my hon. Friend's suggestion that there are vexatious prosecutions. The CPS acts in accordance with the code for Crown prosecutors. There must be evidence, and public interest considerations must be taken into account. As I explained in an earlier answer, the law provides certain offences in relation to drugs. My hon. Friend knows that clinical trials are being held and that money is going into research on the problem that he raises. I refute the notion of vexatious prosecutions.
My hon. Friend also raises the issue of the jury. In serious cases, juries obviously have an important role to play in the British criminal justice system, and in some cases juries acquit defendants. That does not mean that the prosecutions should not have been brought. The evidence suggested that there was a realistic prospect of conviction and a public interest in bringing a prosecution, but a jury took a different view. So be it.
§ Madam SpeakerIf the hon. Member for Newport, West (Mr. Flynn) seeks an Adjournment debate, he might get a shorter answer.
§ Mr. John Burnett (Torridge and West Devon)Last Tuesday on Second Reading of the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate Bill, the Solicitor-General told the House, at columns 885-86, that the Attorney-General was making great efforts to improve the funding for the Crown Prosecution Service and that in that endeavour he was being supported by the Home Secretary and the Lord Chancellor. It would assist the collapsing morale of the CPS to know exactly when those negotiations will be over. Furthermore, it would assist the House and the CPS to be assured that the rolled-forward deficits will not continue to be rolled forward in future years.
§ The Solicitor-GeneralI said the other day that I hoped to bring good news to the House very soon. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is dealing with those matters expeditiously.