Local scorecards an opportunity for ‘greater openness and transparency’ with victims, says NPCC

The Government unveiled the scorecards as part of a multi-year £440 million package for victim support services in England and Wales.

It says publishing local criminal justice scorecards for the first time will “shine a light on the work of agencies such as the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) at a regional level”.

The local criminal justice scorecards include information on the time taken for cases to be investigated by the police, for someone to be charged and for the case to be completed at court. The data can be broken down by local police forces, CPS area as well as Local Criminal Justice Boards.

The scorecards also include information on victim engagement.

The Government said ministers were determined to increase confidence in the criminal justice system so that more victims stick with the process to ensure justice is served. This data will be published alongside scorecards detailing the national picture.

Both the local and national datasets spotlight, specifically, the response to rape and sexual violence. The aim is to use this data to help drive a major increase in the number of prosecutions reaching court.

Emily Hunt, independent adviser to the Government on victims, said: “Nine months after the Rape Review, too many victims are still being let down. In some areas of the country progress is being made but in many, many others we need to do better.

“These local scorecards provide new data about how cases are handled and will allow everyone to see how the criminal justice agencies in their area are performing and hold them to account.

“Prosecution rates for rape have to go up. Giving everyone access to this data, on a local level, will be part of making sure they do.”

The NPCC lead for rape and serious sexual assault, Chief Constable Sarah Crew, said: “The publication of local scorecards provide an opportunity for greater openness and transparency with victims and the public.

“The availability of this data across all partners in one place, for the first time, is central to developing a more accessible and understandable system. We will now focus on looking at the data and work on improving our response where needed.”

The multi-year funding package for victim support services, announced on Friday (March 25), marks a shift from the current annual arrangement.

The Government says the move to a long-term model – with at least £147 million a year up to 2025 – will allow charities and service providers to plan for the future, build capacity and strengthen their resilience to help even more victims. It comes as police and crime commissioners report that the number of victims accessing support increased by 15 per cent between 2019/20 and 2020/21.

Ms Crew said she welcomed the funding for services that provide such a “vital role in helping victims”.

“Policing performs an important role, especially in the pursuit of perpetrators, but it’s vital that the correct funding of services across the criminal justice system is there to support victims of these horrific crimes,” she added.

“We’re working harder than ever with the CPS in our joint commitment to increase charging and conviction rates for rape, which remain too low.

“Operation Soteria, a new and research based approach to rape cases, is being trialled across five forces and the feedback from that is encouraging.

“Our Joint National Action Plan is already seeing improvement and progress across the board, recognising the importance of our relationship in helping those most in need.”

The new funding package will help to provide emotional, practical and therapeutic support for victims of crime such as women and girls affected by domestic abuse. This includes helping fund more specialist Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs). The investment will provide greater consistency for people accessing these services and ensure help is always there when needed, dsays the Government.

Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab said: “We want more victims to have the confidence to come forward, so that more criminals can be prosecuted and victims can get the justice they deserve.

“We’re increasing transparency through local scorecards, rolling out pre-recorded cross-examination for rape victims to more Crown Courts, and boosting funding for vital support services to £440 million over the next three years so that victims get the support they need.”

The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners criminal justice lead, David Lloyd, said: “Using local scorecards we will gain a greater understanding of the criminal justice system’s performance and we will be able to address issues in a more targeted way.”

However, the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Vera Baird QC, said scorecards “are not a panacea”.

“For many victims of crime, seeking justice can be an unacceptably slow and frustrating experience,” said Dame Vera. “But there are marked differences across the country and some areas notably outperform others. These new scorecards will allow us to reveal regional discrepancies, identify best practice and expose weak links.

“But scorecards are not a panacea and numerical snapshots do not tell the whole story. They will need to be complemented by the victims’ voice to provide a more rounded picture.”

The Government also confirmed that measures which spare victims of rape and modern slavery the trauma of giving evidence in the full glare of a courtroom will be rolled out to the North East of England. Known as section 28, the measure allows victims – subject to a successful application to the court – to have their cross-examination pre-recorded earlier in the process and outside of the live trial. It can help to reduce stress to ensure they give their best evidence.

The provision will be introduced to Crown Courts in York, Grimsby, Hull, Bradford and Teesside in the coming weeks as part of a phased national roll-out. It is already available at Liverpool, Leeds, Kingston-Upon-Thames, Harrow, Isleworth, Wood Green and Durham Crown Courts.

Dame Vera said the roll-out of section 28 to more courts was “a positive move that will help to reduce unnecessary stress and trauma for more victims”.

Fay Maxted OBE, chief executive of The Survivors Trust, added: “The wider roll-out of section 28 pre-recorded evidence will make such a difference for rape victims who often tell us that giving evidence in court feels like re-traumatisation instead of the chance to say what happened to them.”

Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs, “very much” welcomed the announcement on multi-year funding.

“It’s essential that domestic abuse victims and survivors can rely on getting the long-term support they need and deserve,” she said.

“For too long domestic abuse services have been forced to lurch from one short-term financial settlement to another and I delighted to see the Ministry of Justice is addressing this issue.”

Ms Maxted added: “I know from The Survivors Trust members agencies, who are all specialist voluntary sector rape and sexual abuse support services, that the additional, long-term funding announced is really welcome and will help them to meet the increasing demand for therapy and advocacy that we’ve seen over the past few years.”

Joe Shalam, policy director at the Centre for Social Justice, said it was welcome to see the Government continue to “raise the ambitions for victims of crime in the justice system”.

“The CSJ Commission on Sexual Abuse and Exploitation exposed alarming shortfalls in the support available to those affected by heinous criminal acts,” he said.

“The measures set out, including local victim scorecards and the wider rollout of pre-recorded evidence, will drive further progress on the protections in place for the most vulnerable victims of crime.”

See https://criminal-justice-scorecard.justice.gov.uk