Cuts to the Crown Prosecution Service budget are no excuse for reducing support for victims and witnesses

The need to reform the criminal justice system has been a policymaking perennial for governments of all stripes over several decades. Britain’s courts are inefficient and, as a result, too often ineffective. Even the simplest cases can be subject to lengthy delays, and procedures are designed with little consideration of the needs of the victims and witnesses in whose interests they are supposedly working. The Coalition has talked a good game, setting out wide-ranging plans designed to drag cumbersome British justice into the 21st century. The problem is that, on the ground, progress is going into reverse.

There is a long list of changes that would improve one of the more unwieldy and opaque areas of state activity. Some are infrastructural, such as the development of modern IT systems to link up the multiple agencies and organisations involved. Some are procedural, such as tweaks to courts’ case management policies. Some are cultural, such as setting a higher priority on rehabilitation. But the treatment of witnesses and victims is as crucial as any.

All too often, those who might reasonably be considered the “customers” of the criminal justice system are almost entirely overlooked. Hearings may be sprung upon them with next to no notice, regardless of how far they may need to travel to attend. Hours may be spent waiting, only for the case to be adjourned. Decisions, even verdicts, are not automatically communicated. Is it any wonder that many come out of the process wishing that they had never begun it, and vowing never to do so again?

The Government is trying to remedy the situation. Indeed, only last year the Ministry of Justice admitted that, “for victims and witnesses, the criminal justice system can be baffling and frustrating, and their experience all too often falls below the standards they might expect from a modern public service,” and pledged to provide extra support. And yet, as The Independent reports today, the Crown Prosecution Service has cut the number of employees charged with looking after witnesses by more than half over the past three years. In 2013 alone, Witness Care staffing levels dropped by nearly a quarter.

There are two points here. The first is a matter of practicality. Faced with swingeing reductions in its budget, the CPS has no alternative but to cut back. But this is a false economy. As has long been evident, if witnesses and victims are not supported, they are less likely to attend court – jeopardising trials and wasting the considerable time and money spent bringing the case to court. The second issue is nothing less than the quality of British justice. Not only is it a travesty for the system to ignore the needs of its most vulnerable petitioners; it also tilts the balance away from fairness, leaving the guilty unpunished, the innocent unexonerated and the law unenforced.

Nor do concerns about the CPS end there. The erosion of victim- and witness-support comes alongside the slashing of legal-aid funding and a sharp reduction in the number of legal staff, including barristers and solicitors. There is, of course, a case for improving efficiency. But justice is no optional extra. Although the Government’s aims may be reasonable enough, more attention needs to be paid to what is happening in reality.