David Ruffley has been MP for Bury St Edmunds since 1997 and is the shadow minister for police reform
In 2003, the Labour Government bowed to the lawyer lobby and imposed “statutory charging” on custody sergeants at the police station. This has resulted in the police having to fill in many more forms to satisfy Crown Prosecution Service lawyers before an offender can be charged. It is wasting police time.
Depressingly, the Government will confirm tomorrow that they are continuing with this bureaucratic madness. That is why I can say that we will abolish Labour’s statutory charging and save at least one million hours of police time a year.
Labour Ministers were persuaded that, in order for a correct charge to be made at the station when an offender was brought in, the power to charge in the vast majority of crimes should be removed from the police sergeant and given to the CPS lawyers. The CPS would “weed-out” allegedly non-viable cases at an early stage. In my inquiry into statutory charging across several police forces I have discovered that this has caused two problems.
First, under statutory charging, in many forces the officer now has to prepare a full “pre-charge document file” for the CPS before a charge can be brought. Typically it will include: Report to Crown Prosecutor for Charging Decision (form MG3); witness statements (forms MG 11); exhibits; CCTV footage or stills; a typed version of what the suspect said in interview (form MG15); details of previous convictions; interview tapes; and a list of information that may undermine the prosecution case (MG6E form). If the CPS decides to charge, the arresting officer has to fill in a copy of the charge sheet, and an MG1 and MG6 form. But often the CPS will send it back and request further evidence. If the CPS requires further investigation, the officer has to return to the CPS with a further report to the Crown Prosecutor for a Charging Decision (form MG 3A). One seasoned officer told me it was “Kafka-esque”.
It does not have to be like this.
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