Background
Local criminal justice boards were launched in April 2003. There are 42 Boards across England and Wales, coinciding with police authority boundaries. Each Board works at a strategic level and is accountable for the delivery of a number of key government targets in respect of criminal justice. The nature and level of these targets varies from year to year. You can see the latest performance figures for Cumbria by following the link on the page menu to the left. We also include a quarterly performance summary in our Justice Jottings newsletter. (See the Publications page)
Generally speaking, Boards are made up of the chief officers from the core local criminal justice agencies. These being the police, Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty's Courts Service, the Youth Offending Service, Her Majesty's Prison Service and the Probation Service. Other agencies can be included if appropriate locally. In Cumbria, Victim Support and the Legal Services Commission (defence counsel and legal aid body) are also full members of the Board. (See the Board Members page)
Having chief officers on the Board helps with the decision-making and resource allocation processes involved in meeting joint performance targets. Committed leadership helps to build the strong partnerships necessary at all organisational levels to deliver effective and efficient criminal justice services. In Cumbria, we constantly seek to develop better links between agencies in a number of ways, such as through our sub-group structures, project teams and regular cross-agency Forum events.
Board meetings are held roughly every six weeks. Although these meetings are not open to the public, copies of Minutes are available upon request. (See Meetings page)
The Criminal Justice Board does not work in isolation. It is essential (and desirable) that we have good relationships with a variety of partners outside of the system. For example, the strategic bodies responsible for administering the county and its districts, the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, the Cumbria Domestic Violence Partnership, offender rehabilitation organisations, voluntary and community support groups, and the health sector (e.g. drug and alcohol treatments).
The work of local criminal justice boards is overseen by the National Criminal Justice Board, which is made up of ministers from the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General's Office, together with senior national representatives from the core criminal justice agencies, police authorities and the Judiciary. Most of the underlying strategic, performance, projects and administrative support functions are channelled to local Boards via the Office for Criminal Justice Reform.