Crown Prosecution Service (Hansard, 28 May 2004)

§ The Solicitor-General

CPS Merseyside's Equality and Diversity Action Plan aims to: increase the involvement of the Crown Prosecution Service in the local community; ensure decision making in all cases is fair regardless of background; assist staff in understanding and applying equality and diversity issues; provide opportunities to encourage people to join the Crown Prosecution Service and to provide full training for them.

The action plan is monitored and updated regularly by managers within CPS Merseyside.

CPS Merseyside has already made significant progress towards these goals. Staff regularly participate in a "Compact Scheme" in schools throughout Liverpool, and recently in Knowsley, in order to assist students to draft applications for employment and with mock interviews. This has proved particularly innovative and successful.

The population of black and minority ethnic and disabled staff within CPS Merseyside is still slightly below the level within Merseyside's working population and, in order to seek to address this issue, CPS Merseyside staff have recently participated in several initiatives to engage with local minority communities, including: "A Fair Play for Jobs" event in March 2004 held in Toxteth to target the black and minority ethnic communities; and, an "Action for Transition" event at Everton Football Club, to engage with disabled people.

The area has established a relationship with the Merseyside Racial Harassment Prevention Unit, which has close ties with the local BME communities. The area held a regional launch event for the CPS policy on racist and religious crime for criminal justice agencies and community groups.

At a recent ceremony at the Liverpool Town Hall to host the CPS National Equality and Diversity Awards, the Director of Public Prosecutions made two awards to staff from CPS Merseyside as representatives of inter-agency groups.