§ Lord Lairdasked Her Majesty's Government:
What proposals they have to improve the conviction rate for all crimes notified to the police in Humberside. [HL3014]
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonWe have set a Public Service Agreement target to bring 1.2 million recorded offences to justice by 2005–06. As a first step to delivering that target, each local criminal justice board has been set a "Narrowing the Justice Gap" target for 2003–04 to increase the number of offences brought to justice in its area by five per cent, compared with the area's performance in 2001–02.
We are working closely with all local criminal justice boards, including Humberside, to develop and execute initiatives which address weaknesses at specific points in the criminal justice system (for example, witness and defendant attendance at court), in the process as a whole (for example, through better joined-up working between the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)) and by targeting persistent offenders.