Improved hate crime conviction rates, better outcomes for victims and witnesses and a ‘people first’ culture has seen CPS West Midlands’ performance roundly praised in a report released today by Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI).

The improvement in hate crime conviction rates has been achieved in part as a result of community engagement managers and hate crime champions from West Midlands CPS working across the Area to share best practice. Improved training and guest speakers have all raised awareness about hate crime and the result has been an increase in conviction rates together with greater consideration for extended sentences. The initiative and other examples of senior managers’ work with criminal justice partners have been judged as ‘strengths’ by inspectors.

The Area has also been proactive in establishing constructive partnerships to improve the outcomes for victims, witnesses and users of the service. Inspectors also found that the Area has consistently improved performance outcomes in many fields over the past three years. The quality of data the CPS provides and shares in joint arrangements with criminal justice partners has resulted in early guilty pleas in the Crown Court in 46.9% of cases, 7% above the national average. The Area has also reduced hearings per case in both contested and guilty plea cases in the magistrates’ court, outperforming the national average.

A new ‘people first’ ethos championed by the Chief Crown Prosecutor and supported by her management team has helped drive improvements across the Area, resulting in HMCPSI judging these aspects of performance as ‘good’ and ‘excellent’.

The Area has made significant investments in legal training which has directly improved casework outcomes and enabled better decision-making. The Area has also worked with all police forces to deliver joint training on disclosure involving imaginative use of technology such as webinars.

Inspectors did, however, find a need for improvement in a number of areas. Timeliness of reviews and communications with victims should be better and case management on contested cases needs to improve. Court orders were not always fully adhered to and some task lists on the case management system were not managed effectively.

West Midlands had overspent its budget for the past three years, however the overspend in 2016-2017 was down from 3.9% to 0.5%.

Chief Inspector Kevin McGinty said: “This is an encouraging report which highlights the Area’s willingness to listen to feedback and respond positively, particularly with regard to hate crime. The scale of improvement in a relatively short space of time should be a source of pride to all concerned, particularly the Chief Crown Prosecutor who has led from the front.

“I expect that where issues for improvement have been identified, these will be addressed and the forward momentum maintained.”

NOTES TO EDITORS
CPS West Midlands has offices at Birmingham and Stoke and is aligned with Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Mercia and West Midlands police forces. The Area also deals with all British Transport Police casework which is centralised in West Midlands, although the BTP was excluded from this report. The Area covers 13 magistrates’ courts and nine Crown Court centres. Its budget for 2016-2017 was £36,612,835.

Inspectors examined 150 magistrates’ courts and Crown Court files finalised between January 2017 and March 2017. Fieldwork included conversations with members of the judiciary, partner agencies and CPS staff. Court observations were also undertaken.