Labour plans to give police prosecuting power in domestic abuse cases
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Police will be able to prosecute domestic abusers without consulting the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) under a Labour shake-up to boost record low charging rates.
In a major extension of police powers, officers would be able to arrest, lock up and charge domestic abusers without having to be authorised to do so by the CPS.
Labour believes the law change would speed up charging decisions and avoid CPS delays that can lead to dangerous domestic abusers being released and their victims being put at risk because of the time limit for custody.
Insiders suggested it could be extended to other offences, following demands from three of Britain’s most senior chief constables that police, rather than prosecutors, should be given powers to charge suspects for many more crimes.
The police chiefs said CPS delays in charging suspects was leading to the guilty walking free and delayed justice, as victims and witnesses tire of long waits. Last year, 1.6 million victims dropped out of cases amid record police and court delays.
The move for charging domestic abusers is part of a package of measures to speed up justice and reduce bureaucracy which has been proposed by Labour’s charging commission, led by former victims’ commissioner Dame Vera Baird, with a former chief constable, prosecutor and crime commissioner.
It also proposes a new statutory duty requiring chief constables and chief crown prosecutors to better collaborate to reduce delays, bolster file quality and drive up charging rates.
The commission found some officers did not even have contact details for the prosecutors working on their cases, and only communicated through a “ping pong” of electronic memos, causing disastrous delays.
One lawyer who had been working for the CPS for over three years said they had never spoken to a police officer.
The proportion of offences resulting in a charge have collapsed in the past eight years from 15.5 per cent in 2015 to below six per cent last year.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said: “The catastrophic collapse in the proportion of crimes being charged must be reversed if victims are to have confidence in the system again – and the police and CPS must both play their part in turning things around.”
West Yorkshire Police has been piloting a scheme where officers use emergency powers to charge high-risk domestic abusers if the CPS is unable to authorise such a move within the 24-hour window before they have to release them.
Dame Vera said it had proved a success with all the charging decisions made by the specially-trained officers subsequently ratified by the CPS.
In an article for The Telegraph, Dame Vera said the commission had found victims being put at risk from violent suspects who could have been remanded in custody if they were charged in time. West Yorkshire’s scheme was “making a real difference, safeguarding victims and boosting confidence,” she added.
Labour is proposing the scheme would firstly be expanded to six high-performing police forces before being rolled out nationally, if successful.
It follows a call last year by the chief constables of the Met, West Midlands and Greater Manchester for the CPS to be stripped of having the sole power to authorise charges in most cases to combat delays.
They proposed this would include crimes such as domestic abuse, harassment, burglary, robbery, theft, knife crime, and violence.
Labour said the new statutory duty for police chiefs and CPS was designed to “end the blame game” and ensure they worked together to speed up justice. The new duty would be policed through annual joint inspections by the police watchdog.
The commission also proposed changing data protection laws to sweep away bureaucracy so that police no longer had to redact personal data from case files before they were sent to the CPS, saving thousands of officer hours every year.
Some forces have spent up to £1 million setting up “digital Tipp-Ex” divisions whose only job is to redact names, addresses and images from evidence to meet data privacy rules.
Justice delayed by catalogue of serious flaws in charging process
By Dame Vera Baird
When I resigned as the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales 18 months ago, I didn’t think that things could get worse. Conservative ministers were failing to support ordinary people whose lives are destroyed or made miserable by crime, and they would not act on my advice to bring positive change. Thousands of people were being let down by the criminal justice system each year and public confidence was tumbling.
But the situation has gotten worse. The facts speak for themselves. More than 90 per cent of crimes reported to police went unsolved last year, 2.3 million crimes were dropped because of ‘a lack of evidence’, and over a million victims dropped out of the criminal justice process altogether because they lost confidence in the system.
It is hugely disappointing that in a third of cases it now takes more than 100 days for a suspect to be charged, and in more than half of cases it takes at least a month. These delays include low-level cases as well as the most serious ones, and rape charges, in particular, are taking longer than ever; the average time a rape victim has to wait for their attacker to be charged is now more than 400 days.
Justice delayed is justice denied
How can anyone believe that the police and prosecutors are listening if this very first step towards justice takes months or years? It may be an old saying but justice delayed is justice denied.
After 14 years of Tory Government and austerity, many police and prosecutors have long been overstretched and are exhausted. Both agencies have lost experienced and specialist personnel. Morale is low and it would be easy for the two agencies to descend into a turf war about who is to blame. But we desperately need these public services to work together to deliver for victims, and we need a government intent on turning things around.
That’s why I agreed to chair Labour’s Charging Commission, which has brought together highly experienced colleagues from the most senior levels of investigation and prosecution to work together and to advocate for victims.
Over the last six months, we have uncovered a catalogue of serious flaws in the charging process which are preventing justice. We found a staggering breakdown in communication and confidence between the police and the CPS, and evidence that in too many cases, they are simply not talking to each other or working together, meaning problems escalate or don’t get resolved fast enough.
Astonishingly, one CPS lawyer told us they had never even spoken to a police officer in three years. That cannot be right. When victims have the courage to report crime, they should be able to expect that it will be dealt with swiftly and effectively – not get bogged down between the police and the CPS.
Ending the blame game
Our commission has come up with a series of recommendations to drive improvement, and to end the blame game so that police and prosecutors can start working together again, putting victims first. Under our proposals, adopted by the Labour Party, chief constables and chief crown prosecutors would be put under a legal duty to collaborate through joint plans, to reduce friction and delays, improve case files from police and make CPS case management more effective.
Our commission also found that victims were being put at risk from violent suspects who could have been remanded in custody if they were charged in time. We have suggested a practical solution where the police use the emergency powers available to them to charge high-risk domestic abuse suspects if the CPS, despite their best endeavours, are unable to do so before the custody clock runs out. The measures would be piloted in a small number of high-performing police forces. West Yorkshire Police is already doing this - and it’s making a real difference, safeguarding victims and boosting confidence – and the CPS has ratified every domestic abuse charge this force has made, so the scheme is working for everyone.
We also propose that victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault and rape have the right to be supported in court by skilled, specialist advisers. At present, the person who’s helped them through the ordeal of the police investigation may not be allowed into court to be with them when they give evidence. We want that to change, making it an automatic right.
Those working in the criminal justice system do remarkable work in difficult conditions, but we found that the system is currently overrun with complexity and sorely lacking in common sense.
That’s what the recommendations we are putting out today are intended to address.
Keir Starmer led the way in putting victims at the heart of the system when he was Director of Public Prosecutions. He drove up the charge rate and has made it the mission of a future Labour government to reverse the catastrophic collapse we have seen since, and to rebuild confidence in the police and criminal justice system.
Under his leadership, we can restore a system where it is simply the norm that crime is punished, victims are protected, and justice is delivered. Our recommendations will offer a starting point and we will continue to work for more progress together.
Dame Vera Baird is a former Solicitor General, police and crime commissioner and victims’ commissioner.
