Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what oversight her Department has over (a) the CPS and (b) the speed of prosecutions.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is responsible for making charging decisions and is independent of both the police and the government. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice does not have oversight over the CPS.

However, whilst the listing of cases is a matter for the independent judiciary, the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS have a degree of oversight of how quickly cases move through the criminal courts once received. The Crown Court has shown improvements in timeliness more recently. The latest public data shows that the number of days from a case arriving at the Crown Court to completion reduced by 25% throughout 2023, from 167 days in Q1 to 125 in Q4.

Across all jurisdictions, we are working closely with partners across the justice system to improve readiness of cases for hearing at court. We have introduced Case Coordinators into ten Crown Courts to improve adherence to the principles of Better Case Management. These principles link key initiatives to improve the way cases are processed through the system, covering areas such as robust case management, reduced but more effective hearings, and compliance with the rules and directions of the criminal court. The proof-of-concept is currently scheduled to conclude in August 2025, and the full evaluation at that point will test the business case for any further rollout.

The Criminal Courts Improvement Group (CCIG), chaired by the Senior Presiding Judge, works to improve adherence to Better Case Management Principles. CCIG focuses on improving efficiency across the system and aims to improve case management principles.

The Ministry of Justice publishes the CJS Delivery Data Dashboard, which includes timeliness metrics for the criminal justice system, including the average time from the police referring a case to the CPS to the CPS authorising a charge and the average time that a case takes to complete at court.