10 February 2022
Many victims of crime don’t understand the role of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and how it makes decisions, the CPS said last week in its response to the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) consultation on a new Victims’ Bill, ‘Delivering justice for victims’
The CPS said it recognised the way it communicates with victims is ‘not satisfactory’ and has commissioned the CPS’ first victim needs assessment, working with Crest Advisory, to find out how it can improve.
However, the CPS added it has ‘significant concerns’ about the implication in the consultation that changes could be made to the way prosecutors make decisions. It said any move to increase the weight of a victim’s voice in relation to decisions on sufficiency of evidence puts at risk the objectivity and independence of the prosecutor. It cautioned against imposing pre-charge and pre-trial meetings with victims as this could create false expectations as well as requiring additional resources.
