Report on Service Prosecuting Authority casework

The November 2024 report of an invited review of the quality of the Service Prosecuting Authority's casework by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate can be found here. From the summary:

Our findings are very positive. We saw evidence of a thinking approach in legal decision making with prosecutors looking for ways to strengthen cases referred to them by the Service Police, identifying additional reasonable lines of enquiry, prosecuting the right person for the right offences and having a good grip of their casework. Timeliness and case progression was strong in most instances. We also found that there were clear assurance mechanisms that added value. 

The report highlights a number of strengths in the SPA’s casework including its legal decision making. Our overall assessment is that the SPA adds real value and the work and time that the DSP and his team have invested into establishing a more structured prosecution approach is clear and can be seen in our findings.  

As with all organisations, there are some aspects where improvement can be made. Using our experience of inspecting the CPS and other prosecutors, we have made seven recommendations, some of which, pertaining to disclosure and victims, draw from good practice developed in the CPS. 

Although the SPA and the CPS both prosecute criminal offences in England and Wales, they do so in different jurisdictions; the service justice system and the civilian justice system. We found good compliance with the protocols in place to govern where cases should be heard. All the An inspection of the quality of casework in the Service Prosecuting Authority    cases we examined were in the correct jurisdiction and there was proper consideration of victims’ views when deciding on jurisdiction.  

A clear difference between the service and the civilian justice system at the time of writing is in the length of time it takes for cases to be tried. The delay in Crown Court cases in the civilian justice system is well rehearsed and it is not unusual for victims of serious sexual offences to wait a number of years, sometimes longer, for their cases to be heard. By contrast, with fewer cases in the system, victims of serious sexual offences in the service justice system can usually expect their case to be heard by the Court Martial within about six months of the case being directed for charge. Lower volumes mean that cases can be progressed more quickly providing certainty and closure to victims.  

In the service justice system, we also observed that victims are allocated a victim liaison officer (VLO) at the point of reporting a serious offence (which includes all sexual offences), with that VLO supporting the victim throughout the case until conclusion, providing continuity of support and information. This is a better approach than in the civilian justice system where investigating officers are responsible for updating victims, alongside their operational roles, until the point a charge is authorised and the care and updating of the victim is transferred to the witness care unit, where an assigned witness care officer will update victims. We have commented previously on the poor levels of service that is afforded to victims in the civilian justice system. The level of timeliness and support for victims in the service justice system is something we would like to see afforded to all victims in all jurisdictions; a consistent service offered by one allocated individual has real benefits. 

We examined rape and serious sexual offences cases as part of this inspection and found that in general the SPA handles these cases well. The SPA has sought to introduce good practice developed by the CPS in the handling of these cases by appointing a rape and serious sexual offence and domestic abuse (RASODA) lead. The RASODA lead is a senior lawyer and has many years of experience of working in rape and serious sexual offences units in the CPS. As well as the legal leadership and experience of the RASODA lead, the SPA structure ensures that these sensitive offences are dealt with by the more experienced prosecutors. All rape, serious sexual offences and domestic abuse cases are subject to additional scrutiny, advice and support from the RASODA lead as well as the Deputy Director of Service Prosecutions and the Director of Service Prosecutions. The SPA will want to continue this approach of learning from the CPS by working closely with the Service Police to adopt best practice from the national operating models that the Home Office police forces and the CPS have developed through Operation Soteria based on the principles of early joint working to develop strong cases with a suspect centric approach. 

During the inspection we heard from one consultee that they thought that serious sexual offences should be prosecuted in the civilian justice system (where the offences occur in England and Wales). This chimes with the recommendation in the Lyons report published in 2018. Our inspection focussed purely on the quality of the SPA’s casework. Our findings do not suggest that moving serious sexual offences to the civilian system would necessarily provide victims of these offences with a better service or support from prosecutors and would at this current time of substantial backlogs in the civilian system following the Covid-19 pandemic be potentially detrimental to victims of the most serious offences. As the Lyons report highlights, any change would be wider than just whether the SPA or the CPS prosecutes; consideration of the level of service and support from the Service Police and the Military Court system are also factors to be considered in which jurisdiction these cases should be heard. The wider service justice system was outside the remit of this inspection. O

Our assessment of the SPA’s casework in all offence types, including RASODA cases, is that prosecutors are making good quality legal decisions in these cases and that victims are well supported. Restricting the jurisdiction of the service justice system to exclude serious sexual offences alleged to have been committed in England and Wales (which would be dealt with in the civilian justice system), would greatly reduce the SPA’s caseload; this would reduce the number of cases dealt with by the SPA and it is likely that this would have a negative impact on the quality of its casework and legal decision making as SPA prosecutors would be dealing with cases less frequently.