Landmark victims' survey reveals lack of confidence in CPS

Six in 10 crime victims do not feel confident that the Crown Prosecution Service is effective at prosecuting people accused of a crime, according to the largest ever survey conducted by the Victims’ Commissioner. 

The survey of 3,048 crime victims, published yesterday, also paints a picture of a justice system in which victims said they waited too long for a case to reach trial, felt unsupported during the court process, and, in some instances, were not told about the outcome of a case until they asked.

Only 8% of the 1,991 respondents for whom a report was made to the police saw the case go to court and 6% saw a conviction. In a sample size of 158 people, 30% were not kept well informed about the progress of the case and 37% felt they waited too long before the case reached trial.

In one respondent’s ‘unique’ case, there were 14 separate sentencing dates and times agreed – but each one failed and the victim did not know why.

‘In the end I wrote to the head of the CPS because it was a joke that this many dates could be arranged by judges in a Crown court, and yet the sentencing does not occur. Every month I would be on tenterhooks awaiting an outcome that never occurred. Finally, six letters later and 18 months and 14 sentencing dates - it finally occurred,’ the respondent said.

A victim over 65 only found out about the accused’s court appearance afterwards. In a case where the defendant was arrested for threats to life and ABH, the victim said ‘it was disgusting’ that the defence offered a lower charge of affray and the CPS accepted it.

Victims’ Commissioner Baroness Newlove said victims deserve a system that treats them fairly.

Baljit Ubhey, director of strategy and policy at the CPS, said work to reduce delays includes 'stopping the back and forth' of case files between police and prosecutors, serving a full case on defendants before the first hearing to encourage an early guilty plea, and boosting the number of prosecutors. Measures to support victims better include new trauma-informed training programmes for frontline staff and hiring specialist victim liaison officers in every part of the country.

Victims minister Alex Davies-Jones said the government will strengthen the victims' commissioner's powers to hold the system to account.

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