Finds good for leadership, communicating with victims needs improvement.

Inspectors from Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) have rated the East Midlands CPS Area good for leadership, case preparation in the Crown Court and engagement, and poor for communications with victims.

Inspectors praised the strong leadership by senior managers which is clearly evidenced by the high level of staff engagement; higher than the CPS national average.

Inspectors found that despite having a lower cost per case than the national average there are some issues about financial planning and the current financial model needs review.

Inspectors also found that quality and timeliness of responses to victims requires significant improvement, with letters giving the incorrect information and lacking in empathy towards the victim. Training has been provided in the Victim Communication and Liaison scheme (VCL) for staff and external agents.

Chief Inspector of the HMCPSI, Kevin McGinty says:

“CPS East Midlands is doing well in many areas such as leadership and engagement, with a collaborative approach with partner agencies. This report recognises those achievements. There are, however, also some areas that are in need of improvement.
 
“It is vital that victims receive accurate information in a timely and sensitive way to ensure they have confidence in the criminal justice system.
 
“CPS East Midlands needs to improve its management of resources to ensure it provides value for money for service users and I hope that the Area will take action to tackle this.”

Criteria	Score
Effectiveness of leadership	Good
Resources systematically managed	Fair
Case preparation and progress (magistrates’ courts)	Fair
Case preparation and progress (Crown Court)	Good
Performance data	Fair
Reviews and decisions	Good
Communication with victims	Poor

CPS East Midlands has offices at Nottingham and Leicester, and is aligned with Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Nottinghamshire police forces. It covers ten magistrates’ courts and five Crown Court centres.

Inspectors examined 120 magistrates’ courts and Crown Court files finalised between April and June 2016.

Fieldwork took place in September 2016. Inspectors spoke with members of the judiciary, representatives of partner agencies and CPS staff, both formally and informally. Court observations were undertaken to assess the effectiveness of case progression.