333 people died in or immediately after police custody in the years 1999 to 2009,  according to statistics from the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The MoJ report that last year 58 prisoners committed suicide. Now, for the first time, police forces, prisons, youth detention centres and the UK Border Agency could face prosecution for corporate homicide if an individual dies in their custody.

Section 2(1)(d) of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 prescribes a duty of care to a person who, by reason of being a person within subsection (2), is someone for whose safety the organisation is responsible. Subsection (2) states that a person is within this subsection if -

(a) he is detained at a custodial institution or in a custody area at a court or police station;

(b) he is detained at a removal centre or short-term holding facility;

(c) he is being transported in a vehicle, or being held in any premises, in pursuance of prison escort arrangements or immigration escort arrangements;

(d) he is living in secure accommodation in which he has been placed;

(e) he is a detained patient.

Implementation of this clause has been delayed to give police forces and prisons time to inspect their custody facilities and make sure they are up to the required standards. Now Commencement No.3 Order 2011 brings the provisions into force on 1st September.

Among campaigners welcoming the new provisions is Inquest, a charitable organisation that provides a specialist advice service to bereaved people, lawyers, other advice and support agencies, the media, MPs and the wider public on contentious deaths and their investigation. Their casework priorities are deaths in custody (police, prison, immigration detention and deaths of detained patients). The monitoring of such deaths means that they claim to be at the forefront of uncovering patterns and trends, and within this area there are particular concerns about the deaths of women, black people, young people, and people with mental health problems.

Inquest say that, until now, there has been no successful prosecutions for deaths in custody, even in the 10 cases since 1990 where an inquest jury had returned an unlawful killing verdict. Helen Shaw, their co-director, believes that the new provisions will provide a fresh avenue to address the problems of death in custody and should have a deterrent effect, preventing future deaths.

Writing in the ‘Guardian’, Sandra Laville says: “Prosecutions will take place if it can be proved that the way the facilities are managed or organised caused a death and amounted to a breach of the duty of care. The penalty for organisations convicted is a fine with no maximum limit. Crown Prosecution Service guidance says that the fines are likely to be in the many millions of pounds.”

The Home Office has launched plans to tackle violence against women and girls. Spouses and partners of UK residents who are forced to flee their relationships as a result of domestic violence will now be able to access vital support services.
The UN declaration on violence against women defines such violence as “any act of genderbased violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
The British Crime Survey reports that every year in the UK more than one million women experience domestic abuse and one in four women will be affected by domestic abuse. More than 300,000 women are sexually assaulted and 60,000 women raped; and more than one in twenty women will be stalked.

The ‘Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls – Action Plan’ has been published alongside the government’s response to Baroness Stern’s review into the handling of rape complaints (see blog “Stern Review” posted on 25.03.10). Key actions from the plan include making data on regional levels of violence against women – including domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking – more accessible to ensure resources are targeted to where they are most needed. There will be new research aimed at countering the myth that false allegations of rape are common and an independent consultation on the measurement of rape conviction rates.

A new national stalking group will be set up to support the work of the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service in improving the police response to stalking. Action will be taken to raise awareness of the law around sexual offences and challenge attitudes of abuse within teenage relationships. There will be more training for key frontline professionals – including doctors, nurses, health visitors – on identifying and dealing with violence against women. Central funding will be provided for frontline services including rape crisis centres, Independent Domestic Violence Advisors, and four years of funding for the National Domestic Violence Helpline.
Introducing the plan, Home Secretary Theresa May said: “I want to see an end to all forms of violence against women and girls. Our comprehensive and detailed action plan sets out how we are going to tackle these crimes – supporting those at risk, helping victims and ensuring offenders are brought to justice. Most importantly we need to prevent these crimes occurring in the first place. That is why we are challenging and where necessary working to change, attitudes and behaviours.”

The Ministry of Justice has announced more than £10.5 million of funding for three years for rape crisis services. Baroness Stern said: “I welcome the government’s response to the recommendations in my report. Particularly in a time of financial stringency it is good that the government recognises the importance of a specialist and supportive response to rape victims.”

The ‘Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls – Action Plan’ can be found at:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/crime/call-end-violence-women-girls/vawg-action-plan?view=Binary

Photo courtesy of ghetto_guera29′s photostream

For the first time victims of stalking have had their ordeal recognised in official government guidance. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has published revised guidance on stalking and harassment. It emphasises the existence and widespread nature of stalking as a particular category of harassment and it identifies the various ways in which stalking occurs.

There is no legal definition of stalking, neither is there specific legislation to address this behaviour. It is a term used to describe a particular kind of harassment, and is generally used to describe a long-term pattern of persistent and repeated contact with, or attempts to contact, a particular victim. Harassment is also not specifically defined but can include repeated attempts to impose unwanted communications and contacts upon a victim in a manner that could be expected to cause distress or fear in any reasonable person. The term harassment is used to cover the ‘causing alarm or distress’ offences under section 2 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 as amended (PHA), and ‘putting people in fear of violence’ offences under section 4 of the PHA. (See Chapter 32 of ‘Criminal Offences Handbook’, specifically sections 32.43, 32.44, 32.56 and 32.57). Critics have long called for reform of a law that still does not recognise stalking as a distinct criminal offence. Stalking curtails a victim’s freedom, leaving them feeling that they constantly have to be careful. In many cases, the conduct might appear innocent if taken in isolation, but when carried out repeatedly so as to amount to a course of conduct, it may then cause significant alarm, harassment or distress to the victim.

In the most recent British Crime Survey, published this year, 18.7% of women and 9.3% of men said they had been stalked at some point in their lives. Experts say that half of all stalkers now use the internet to contact or target their victims. Prosecutors estimate that around 1 million people in the UK have experienced stalking. Although no figures are collated on the number of cases dealt with through the courts, there are thought to have been only a few hundred prosecutions. Introducing the new guidelines, Nazir Afzal, CPS Community Liaison Director and lead on stalking and harassment crimes, said: “Stalking is pernicious and can affect anyone regardless of their walk of life. It has a devastating impact on the lives of those who become victims”.  “Stalkers steal lives,” he said. “We as police and prosecutors haven’t taken it seriously in the past. Now we do.” He went on to say: “What we now understand more fully is that victims of stalking, just like victims of domestic violence, continue to live in fear of their stalkers despite the fact that they may have been prosecuted and imprisoned or subject to other sanctions.” The new guidance is designed to give prosecutors a better understanding of what stalking is and provide a framework to build stronger cases and to apply for more effective restraining orders.
 
Alexis Bowater, Chief Executive for the Network for Surviving Stalking (NSS), said: “As the UK charity that represents stalking victims and their families, the Network for Surviving Stalking welcomes the new CPS guidelines on stalking and their swift and comprehensive response to a real need. We hope the inclusion of cyber-stalking for the first time will encourage everyone involved to take this crime more seriously. This new guidance will go a long way to improving the lives of victims and to making sure that perpetrators are treated appropriately by the courts.”
The full text of ‘Stalking and Harassment Guidance’ can be found at:-

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/stalking_and_harassment/

The standard of work expected of public prosecutors, at every stage of the prosecution process, has been published this week and is open for consultation. The consultation document on core quality standards for prosecutors covers 12 key areas, from providing advice to police before a charge to sentencing and appeal processes.

Prosecutors exercise powers on behalf of the public. They deliver a public service. And that requires prosecutors to deliver their service in accordance with a set of “publicly facing core quality standards”, which says DPP Keir Starmer “lie at the heart of ensuring that excellence is delivered as the norm throughout the national service. They will lay down the minimum in terms of quality and delivery that the public are entitled to expect from those who prosecute on their behalf”. The standards will cover every major aspect of CPS work, from protecting the public to advising the investigator; through to defining the standards of service in respect of every aspect of the prosecutor’s role in court; and from supporting victims and witnesses to dealing with complaints.

This is a time of change for the prosecution service. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) are merging. The aim is to provide for a more flexible and resilient organisation, claimed to be better placed to deal with specialist, organised, crime. The merged organisation will provide advice and prosecution services not only to the police, but also to the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency. Writing this week in the ‘Guardian’, Keir Starmer said that “the merged organisation will prosecute over 1.1 million cases a year. And its cases will range from extremely serious terrorist ones and international organised crime at one end to antisocial conduct and disorder at the other, not to mention the challenge of prosecuting fraud and financial crime and tackling violence against women”. Was that final category a hasty afterthought?

There is a pledge to use IT systems fully and to be willing to embrace technological advances. In future the electronic case file will allow all the current paperwork that supports a case to be made available electronically to all those who need to see it. Accepting that criminal justice is currently not delivered as effectively and efficiently as it should be, henceforth the electronic case file and electronic case management systems will “become the main currency in the criminal justice service”.

The consultation paper concludes that “a criminal justice service underpinned by the rule of law and respect for human rights is at the heart of modern democracy. A modern public prosecution service – focused on protecting the public, delivering justice and supporting victims and witnesses – is at the centre of such a service. Core quality standards will ensure that we deliver what is expected in every key aspect of our work”. Consultation is open until 18 January 2010, and the full text of ‘Public Prosecution Service: Setting the Standard’ is at:-

http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/articles/the_public_prosecution_service_-_setting_the_standard/

“The public’s right to live in safety and to be protected from criminal conduct lies at the heart of the criminal justice system. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) protect the public by prosecuting firmly and fairly, and by doing so in an open, transparent and independent way. Our duty is to serve our communities and to do justice in every case.”

So said the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, QC, when last week he published his plan for taking forward the public prosecution service. He said that for too long the CPS had been part of a criminal justice system. Criminal justice should not be a system, it should be a service, and developing criminal justice from a system to a service is now a priority. He identified the key to a dynamic and responsive public prosecution service as Core Quality Standards which set out clearly what is expected. They will lay down the minimum in terms of quality and delivery that the public are entitled to expect from those who prosecute on their behalf. The standards will cover every major aspect of CPS work, from protecting the public to advising the investigator, through to defining the standards of service in respect of every aspect of the prosecutor’s role in court, and supporting victims and witnesses in dealing with complaints.

The RCPO and the CPS are to merge and it is claimed that this will provide for a more flexible organisation, better placed to deal with specialist, organised, crime. At the same time a core commitment identified is to the communities served. Prosecutors are to be community prosecutors, so that they know the types of crime that cause most local concern and are able to take the public’s views into account in their decisions and in the information they place before the courts. The DPP said that criminal justice is not delivered as effectively and efficiently as it should be. “It is high time for the electronic case file and electronic case management systems to become the main currency in the criminal justice service.” Of the 104,000 cases placed before the Crown Court, 73% result in the defendant pleading guilty without the need for a trial. Given the extent to which the Crown Court is predominantly a sentencing court, the DPP said there should be a fresh look at how best to conduct business there. “Guilty pleas need to be identified earlier, so that valuable time and resources can be concentrated on those cases which are actually going to result in a trial.”

The Attorney General has created a Strategic Board to review and improve the delivery of public prosecution, fraud and legal services for which she is responsible. An outcome of that Board’s work has been the creation of an agreed protocol that sets out how the Attorney General and the Directors of the prosecution services exercise their functions in relation to each other. It claims to confirm the independence of the prosecution services in reaching prosecution decisions – pace BAE Systems – and sets out the circumstances when the Attorney General will be consulted by the prosecuting departments in order to ensure Parliamentary accountability.

The DPP concludes that “a criminal justice service underpinned by the rule of law and respect for human rights is at the heart of modern democracy…Fair, fearless and effective; open, honest and transparent; protective, supportive and independent: these are the qualities that the public has a right to expect of its public prosecution service. We are determined to meet those expectations.”

The full text of the plan can be found at:-

www.cps.gov.uk/news/articles/
and you are invited to send any comments to GeneralFeedback@cps.gsi.gov.uk