Detailed Information

What is the Board?

It is one of a national network of boards established by the Government in April 2003. As well as the Board members, the HCJB is supported by the Business Development Manager, Performance Officer and the Business Support Administrator. They are resposible for managing the day to day business and collating performance information which is used to measure against targets.

The Boards reporting structure is as follows:

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What Does the Board Do?

The Hertfordshire Criminal Justice Board is committed to improving co- operation between Criminal Justice agencies to deliver a better Criminal Justice system for victims and the community. The Board identifies and corrects weaknesses in the system and shares best practice with other areas.

The Board is equally committed to consulting openly with representatives from the wider community. In this way the concerns of local people can be taken into account in planning how to deliver Criminal Justice.

The Boards work centres around the targets set by the Government to be achieved by all Local Criminal Justice Boards. These are Narrowing the Justice Gap, Persistent Young Offenders and Increasing Public Confidence.

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How Does the Board Work?

In order to achieve its targets the Board has also set up a number of multi-agency sub-groups which meet on a regular basis to look at a particular issue and agree ways to improve results and move forward. Current sub-groups include: Race Equality: Consultation Leaders Group (CLG); Public Confidence; Enforcement; Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA); Local Criminal Justice Delivery Groups (LCJDG);

The graph below details the structure of the Hertfordshire Criminal Justice Board's sub-groups

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HCJB Delivery Plan Targets 2007-8

The board has detailed Delivery Plans supporting Narrowing the Justice Gap and Increasing Public Confidence. The above chart shows how the board has established sub-groups who are responsible for meeting strategies and finding solutions to meet these priority objectives. These groups report back to the Board on a regular basis.

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Narrowing the Justice Gap

At the moment only one fifth of all Crimes recorded by the Police result in the perpetrator being brought to Justice. Narrowing the Justice Gap is the key measure of the effectiveness of the CJS. It means bringing more Offenders to Justice to decrease the gap between the number of offences recorded and the number of offenders that are convicted. For more information please visit www.cjsonline.org/njg/

Priority 1: Prolific and Priority Offenders Scheme

Based on 2003-4 base-line figure of 1370 offences committed by Persistant Offenders.

Stage 1 Target - To increase the number of Offences brought to Justice and committed by Persistant Offenders to a minimum of 5% in 2004-5.
This will equate to at least 67 additional offences in the year.

Stage 2 Target - To target between 15-20 identified Prolific and Priority Offenders by Crime Disorder Reduction Partnership area

Priority 1b: Effective Trials

Target - To increase the number of crimes for which offenders are brought to justice by 5% in 2003-4. This equates to 680 offences.

Magistrates Court Targets for 2003-4

  • To reduce the number of ineffective trials from 22% to 18%
  • To increase the number of effective trials to at least 53% in 2004/5 NB. An Ineffective Trial is where a trial is unable to proceed on the day that it was scheduled to start and has to be re-listed for trial on another day. There are various reasons for this, but the main ones are the non-attendance of a prosecution or defence witness, the failure of the defendant to appear, or the parties not being ready to proceed with the case.

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Increasing Public Confidence

Confidence in the Criminal Justice System will be achieved by ensuring effective communication of the Boards work and the engagement of all stakeholders including victims, witnesses and local communities in the work of the board. Part of the boards work here centres on Consultation. A vital aspect of what we have set out to do this year is to ensure that those who make up the wider criminal justice system - such as the judges, magistrates, local defence solicitors and voluntary bodies, witness service and victim support are consulted about the work we are doing. As well as being given the opportunity to put to us any concerns they may have. Effective liaison is essential. This is done through twice yearly public consultation events, with the most recent held on March 14th 2005, through regular meetings and in our day to day work. The board also has regular liaison with a group drawn from this wider body – The Consultation Leaders Group, who are able to advise the board and help plan these events. Raising levels of public confidence is also about consultation. We want every community in our county to have confidence in their criminal justice system, and we need to know what your key concerns are in relation to criminal justice in order to set out a clear programme of action for tackling them.

Public Confidence Targets

  • To reach a 50% Confidence Level in the effectiveness of the CJS in bringing to justice people who commit crimes
  • To match or exceed the national average across all 7 Criminal Justice System 'Confidence Measures' during 2004-05.

The 7 measures are as follows: 'Confidence that the CJS in Hertfordshire...

  1. Is effective in bringing justice to people who commit crimes
  2. Meets the needs of victims of crimes 
  3. Respects the rights of people accused of crime and treats them fairly 
  4. Deals promptly and efficiently with cases 
  5. Appears as a whole to effectively reduce crime 
  6. Is effective in dealing with young people accused of crime 
  7. Meets the needs of witnesses of crimes

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Persistant Young Offenders

Target - To speed up the time taken to complete PYO cases to less than 71 days for each quater of the year.

Enforcement

Targets:

  1. To reduce the number of Fail to Appear warrants to 420 against the March 2005 baseline. 
  2. To match or exeed the national fines payment target rate of 81%. 
  3. Proceeds of Crime Act -
    To secure at least £709,549 in confiscation orders
    To secure at least 19 confiscation orders 
  4. Community Penalties - 50% of cases of breaches of community orders to be resolved within 25 working days of the second unacceptable absence and all such breaches to be resolved within an average of 35 working days

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For a more detailed breakdown of these delivery plans and our progress please click here.

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