§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to allow the Crown Prosecution Service to have early access to police files to assist case preparation. [144016]
§ Paul GogginsFollowing successful pilots of the Auld recommendation to increase the role of crown prosecutors in charging decisions, measures to put this on a statutory footing have been enacted in the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The relevant provisions will be brought into effect in April 2004, and the new arrangements will then be implemented on an area-by-area basis.
In preparation for that implementation, Crown Prosecution Service areas and their police partners are establishing shadow charging arrangements in each area. This will provide an infrastructure of duty prosecutors working in police operational units to provide on-the-spot advice to investigators, to be available for early consultation in investigations, and to make charging decisions in a wide range of cases.
Early guidance will focus on the lines of enquiry to be pursued in individual cases, the likely charges to be preferred and the evidential requirements to support these. Guidance will also be given on the case preparation requirements in each individual case.
Charging decisions will be made by crown prosecutors following a review of all the available evidence in each case. Where the evidence presented by an officer is insufficient for the charging decision to be made at that time, further guidance will be given on continuing case preparation and evidential requirements.