Criminal justice system 'wastes millions'

2 Nov 10
The criminal justice system has grown in a haphazard fashion, wasting millions of pounds and making it difficult to strip out costs, police inspectors warn today
By Mark Smulian

3 November 2010

The criminal justice system has grown in a haphazard fashion, wasting millions of pounds and making it difficult to strip out costs, police inspectors warn today.

The Inspectorate of Constabulary says criminal justice spending could not be cut easily because no-one is in overall charge of the system.

A report, Stop the drift, found that 14 pieces of legislation had increased the system’s bureaucracy over the past 15 years, requiring some 1,000 steps to process even a simple domestic burglary through to court.

Costs were also inflated by the large number of late guilty pleas. Although 67% of defendants pleaded guilty, 41% did so only when they reached trial, causing ‘huge amounts of unnecessary paperwork and also further distress to victims’. Constabulary inspector Dru Sharpling said getting defendants to court quickly through ‘firm case management’ could reduce late pleading and save some £40m a year.

And at least another £70m could be saved were the whole country to co-locate police and Crown Prosecution Service staff in police stations. This would reduce the exchange of information between police and the CPS. The scheme has been piloted in London.

But such innovations have been hampered because a lack of data available to the agencies involved – estimated to be at least eight – to assess the costs and benefits of working collaboratively.

With no individual or body in overall charge of the criminal justice system ‘no single leader can authorise and commit to change’.

Sharpling pointed out that, even at Whitehall level, responsibility is split between the attorney general, Home Office and Ministry of Justice.

She said: ‘The criminal justice system has grown in a fragmented and bureaucratic way, slowing down the process, creating waste and stifling innovation.

‘All justice agencies involved are having their budgets cut over the next four years. There will not be enough capacity in the system to sustain the service without reform.’

Sharpling said the Operations Board, a body charged with trying to co-ordinate the criminal justice system, ‘must act swiftly to stop the system from deteriorating’.

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