§ Sir John WheelerTo ask the Attorney-General if he will make a statement concerning the inter-agency working group on pre-trial issues.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe Lord Chancellor, the Home Secretary and I have received a report from the working group on pre-trial issues which makes a number of detailed and far-reaching recommendations for improvements in the processing of criminal cases to the point of trial.
We welcome the report as a valuable basis for action in consultation with the CPS, the police, the courts, and other organisations and bodies with a direct interest in the 209W implementation of the recommendations. We have appointed a steering group of officials to carry forward implementation of the report and to undertake these consultations in order to establish the resource implications of the proposals made, and to provide by the summer recess a costed action plan for implementation.
Copies of the report have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and sent to the Select Committee on Home Affairs which last year conducted an inquiry into the impact on the criminal justice system of the establishment of the CPS and made many recommendations which the working group has carried forward.