Labour’s new five-point “common-sense” plan to solve more crimes

A commission set up by Labour to find ways to increase the number of crimes being solved has warned of a “calamitous collapse” in charging and set out key reforms to ensure delivery for victims, all of which have been accepted by the opposition party.

The party’s charging commission – established in August last year – identified issues in joint working between police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and recommended reforms to both services, calling on them to “end the blame game”.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the “catastrophic collapse in the proportion of crimes being charged must be reversed if victims are to have confidence in the system again” and argued that the police and CPS “must both play their part in turning things around”.

She added: “This expert commission found a breakdown in communication and confidence between the two agencies which is resulting in devastating delays and poor outcomes for victims.

“Labour will implement its common-sense recommendations to ensure the criminal justice system delivers for the people it is there to serve.”

The five key recommendations set out by the commission, and accepted by Labour in full, are:

1. A statutory duty on chief constables and chief crown prosecutors to work together to deliver for victims, including a requirement to develop new joint justice arrangements in every area and devise an annual joint charging action plan.
2. Annual joint inspections to ensure the CPS and police improve communication, reduce delays, bolster case file quality and drive up the charge rate.
3. Changing data protection laws so police no longer have to redact case files before they are sent to the CPS, “saving thousands of officer hours every year”.
4. Allow the six police forces with the highest file quality standards to further pilot charging high-risk domestic abuse suspects, “following the success of a scheme piloted by the chief constable in West Yorkshire”.
5. Give vulnerable victims in domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault cases the right to have specialist support advisors with them throughout the criminal justice process and beside them in court.

Dame Vera Baird, the commission’s chair, said: “The calamitous collapse in charging under the Conservatives has had a detrimental impact on victims of crime, and we welcome Labour’s mission to reverse this trend.

“The commission surveyed the key participants in the criminal justice system and our expert commissioners have worked with that evidence to analyse why there has been such a catastrophic drop in criminal charging and to unlock some solutions.

“These new proposals will bring a boost to charging by bringing CPS, police and victims’ organisations closer together with shared duties, through cross-agency collaboration and in a joint effort to remove inter-agency friction and focus wholly on the public interest.”

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