Almost half of the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) response to complaints have been substandard, a watchdog has found.
His Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) said on Wednesday that the CPS has until December next year to make “substantial improvement” to the “disappointing” quality of the letters.
In a report published on Wednesday, HMCPSI said 49 percent of the CPS' response didn’t meet the required standard.
While there have been some “good examples,” it’s “disappointing” that there hasn’t been “any noticeable improvement in quality” in CPS' letters to complainants since they were last inspected in 2018, according to the report.
The 2018 inspection found only 25.7 percent to be of adequate quality or above among the 70 letters examined.
While the latest inspection found 51 percent of the letters to be adequate, HMCPSI Chief Inspector Andrew Cayley said this is because he had lowered the standard to make the assessment “more realistic.”
Letters with “simple, one-off spelling mistakes or minor use of legal jargon” were rated inadequate in 2018 by Mr. Carley’s predecessor Kevin McGinty, but they were let slide this time, the report said.
When looking at the proportion of “better than adequate” letters, which is more comparable to the “adequate” level in 2018, the number has slid down to 18.8 percent.
The watchdog said it’s clearly something the CPS needs to address as a matter of urgency.
Most Letters Contained Errors
According to the report, the majority of the letters contained some errors despite the fact that draft letters were supposed to be checked by two more senior officers.The timeliness of the responses was slightly better than their qualities, with just over two-thirds having been sent on time, HMCPSI said.
Besides spelling or grammatical mistakes and hard-to-understand legal jargon, not all responses acknowledged mistakes that the CPS had made and apologised for them.
In one case, a victim of alleged domestic abuse” complained that the accused had been released from custody before she was notified.
Although the domestic abuse had been dismissed before the defendant was released, HMCPSI said the complainant should have been notified, but the writer who responded to the complaint “did not mention it at all and an opportunity to explain what had happened and apologise was missed.”
There have also been examples of compensation being offered or denied inappropriately.
In one case, a complainant whose personal data had been mislaid sought consolatory payment, but the CPS told them in a letter that payment could only be offered for active and deliberate failures, which was contrary to guidance.
In another case, a domestic abuse victim who complained after her case failed was offered a consolatory payment even though she had made clear that she didn’t want any.
The complainant “even asked how ‘£200 of taxpayers’ money’ was meant to compensate her for the distress and suffering she had experienced,” HMCPSI said.
The subsequent CPS response included an offer of £400, which HMCPSI said was “not appropriate” given the complainant’s previous letter.
The watchdog also noted that inspectors saw “many good examples of the CPS taking responsibility for mistakes made and offering appropriate apologies to complainants.”
HMCPSI chief inspector Andrew Cayley said he’s “pleased to report” that 82.6 percent of letters expressed empathy, compared with just 53.6 percent of letters in 2018.
There has also been a “slight improvement in the timeliness of responses,” and the quality of final letters has generally improved when drafts were checked by senior officers.
But Mr. Cayley said the fact that a “significant proportion” of letters contain mistakes “sends the wrong message to the public.”
“It’s a part of the CPS’s work that, for me, is disappointing and they need to get a grip of it now,” he told the PA News Agency.
“It’s one of the only lines of communication members of the public have with the CPS and if the CPS get that wrong, that affects confidence in the criminal justice system. That’s how important this is.”
HMCPSI gave the CPS deadlines to include timeliness data in its internal databank by next month, make clarifications of the process, and provide training, and show “a substantial improvement in the number of letters rated as adequate” by December of next year.
In a statement to PA, a CPS spokeswoman said: “We are committed to maintaining the highest standards for victims and improving our feedback and complaints procedure is a vital part of that. We are pleased there have been significant improvements since our last inspection in 2018, with empathy, timeliness and our acknowledgement of mistakes all highlighted as strengths.
“We recognise that there is more that can be done, and we will continue to drive forward improvements so that we can provide the best possible service for victims.”
