Law Weblog

First phase of Statutory Charging goes live a year ahead of schedule

Monday 3 April 2006 at 10:51 pm | In News | Post Comment

The national roll out of Statutory Charging, a new scheme which should ensure that up to 30,000 additional offences are brought to justice each year, has been completed today. Devon and Cornwall is the last of the 42 criminal justice Areas in England and Wales to move to the Scheme following an ambitious and successful roll out programme.

Statutory Charging is the most significant change to the way the Crown Prosecution Service handles criminal cases since its inception. Statutory Charging, a joint initiative by the CPS and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), means that the CPS in England and Wales determines the charge to be brought against a suspect in all but the most minor routine cases.

The police and CPS now work in partnership as ‘The Prosecution Team’ at a much earlier stage in an investigation to achieve the common goal of bringing cases to the right outcome, by building robust cases from the outset.

Statutory Charging was introduced in response to recommendations made by Lord Justice Auld in his ‘Review of the Criminal Courts in England and Wales’ published in October 2001. He recommended that the CPS should determine the charge to be brought against a suspect in all but minor routine cases, ensuring the correct charge from the outset, weeding out non-viable cases at an early stage and ensuring that the remaining cases are trial–ready at the point of charge.

Early pilot and ‘shadow’ schemes demonstrated that significant benefits for the criminal justice system could be achieved by adopting this scheme nationally.
Full benefits are not expected to be realised until March 2007 but February 2006 figures indicate that the overall discontinuance rate in magistrates’ courts has reduced to 16% from a baseline of 36% before Charging was introduced. This represents a 56% improvement overall.
The guilty plea rate has risen to 68% from a baseline of 40% – a 70% improvement; and the attrition rate has dropped to 23% from a 40% baseline – an improvement of 42%. Improvements have also been recorded for Crown Court activity.