Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Attorney General, what steps he plans to take in response to the findings of the report, entitled Communicating with victims, published by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate in January 2016.

Robert Buckland

On the day of the report the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) agreed to act on each of the three recommendations made.

• The CPS is already conducting a review of overall support to victims and witnesses with the police and agreeing our respective roles in communication will form part of this review;
• The CPS will ensure that the quality assurance checks of communications from the Victim Liaison Units (VLUs) are improved through guidance and training; and
• The CPS will seek to improve both the flagging of substantial alterations in appropriate cases and the systems for notification of the VLUs.

In addition, the CPS has already taken action to address a range of issues identified in the report. For example, they have redeployed more paralegal staff and managers to Crown Courts to ensure that there are sufficient staff to support victims and witnesses. When rollout is complete around 350 paralegal staff and managers will be based at Crown Courts across England and Wales. The CPS is also introducing new guidance on Speaking to Witnesses at Court which will improve the service provided and is currently operating in a number of pathfinder sites. It will be rolled out across the country by summer 2016.

The CPS is also reviewing the resourcing of VLUs to ensure that sufficient staff are in place to manage the workload of those units.