The Communicating with Victims inspection assesses how effectively the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) communicates with victims. The focus is on the quality and timeliness of communications.

Most victims and witnesses are nervous and apprehensive about what, for most, is their first encounter with the criminal justice system. Therefore effective communications is essential to help put victims and witnesses at ease.

The CPS have attempted to improve the service provided to victims and witnesses, but inspectors found in 43.4% of cases that communications with victims were still very slow, and victims felt let down by receiving what they see as a standard impersonal letter, which did not give them enough information to let them understand what has happened to their case. Nearly a fifth of letters failed to inform the victim of their right to seek a review of a decision not to prosecute, and nearly all letters failed to provide details of sources of support for victims of domestic abuse. In nearly half the cases examined, inspectors found that no reason was given if it had been decided not to go ahead to trial.

Chief Inspector Kevin McGinty said:
“It is important that the CPS makes sure that all its communications are both timely and effective, and that they live up to their duty of care in making sure that victims feel supported.”

Inspectors concluded that the CPS should be realistic about what is achievable. It was also essential to work closer with criminal justice partners, not just at a strategic level but also operationally to improve the victim’s experience of the criminal justice system.

Download the report:

Communicating with Victims Report A4 print version (Jan 16) (182 kB)

Communicating with Victims Summary (Jan 16) (2 MB)

Communicating with Victims Screen Version (Jan 16) (409 kB) – This version is optimised for reading on-screen. It is part of a trial to evaluate how best to present our reports for on-screen reading. Please let us know how you prefer reading reports at: info@hmcpsi.gov.uk