§ 31. Mr. Barry Gardiner (Brent, North)What arrangements exist between the Crown Prosecution Service and the police to ensure that victims are kept informed as to the progress of criminal proceedings in which they are involved. [151419]
§ 32. Mr. Andrew Dismore (Hendon)What role the Crown Prosecution Service has in assisting victims in providing victim impact statements; and when these will be introduced. [151420]
§ The Solicitor-General (Mr. Ross Cranston)Those two initiatives are part of a range of measures designed to improve the service provided to victims of crime and to enable victims, if they wish, to have a greater involvement in the criminal justice process.
On the first initiative, the Government accepted the recommendations in the Glidewell and Macpherson reports that the CPS should assume responsibility from the police for informing victims of decisions to drop or downgrade charges. The CPS has been piloting arrangements for communicating such decisions directly to victims since November 1999.
Victim personal statements enable victims, if they so wish, to inform the prosecutor, the courts and other criminal justice agencies of the effects of the crime upon them. Such statements will be taken by the police and sent to the CPS with the case papers. The CPS will take the statement into account when making decisions relating to 416 the prosecution, and it will be responsible for ensuring that the victim's personal statement is drawn to the attention of the court that sentences an offender.
§ Mr. GardinerI am grateful to my hon. and learned Friend for that answer. I am sure that he is well aware that one of the most frustrating things for victims of crime is when they feel that they have not been informed of the process of the trial and, often, of its outcome. Victims feel that there are representatives for everybody else, but that no one represents them. Will he assure the House that the responsibility to notify victims of what is happening will not fall between the stools of the police force and the CPS, and that there will be effective communication with victims about what is happening?
§ The Solicitor-GeneralMy hon. Friend raises a very good point. That concern was first mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart). In the case to which she referred, the victim was not informed of what had happened. The procedure that we are introducing will enable the CPS to take on that responsibility, and I saw that happening in north Wales during my recent visit there. The victim will be informed directly by letter. If the victim then wants to see the prosecutor or, in important cases, the chief Crown prosecutor, that will happen.
§ Mr. DismoreI am grateful to my hon. and learned Friend. There is no doubt that many victims often believe that not only are they not kept informed about what is going on, but the crime's impact on them is not taken into account by the courts in passing sentence. Although I am satisfied with the way in which my local police service deals with victims of racially aggravated crime, is there not a case for statements on offences such as race hate crimes to be taken by the CPS when a more detailed statement is often required to get to all the facts?
§ The Solicitor-GeneralThe victim personal statement will enable a victim of a racially aggravated crime to set out its consequences, including the distress that it has caused. On racist crime, my hon. Friend might have seen that last week the CPS published figures that show that the number of prosecutions of racist crimes has increased significantly. In addition, the police are identifying racist crimes to a much greater extent. Much work has to be done, but our approach is bearing fruit.