The Streamlined Process
Background
Criminal Justice, Simple, Speedy, Summary (CJ: SSS), was rolled out in magistrates’ courts nationally in December 2007 and is currently being implemented in youth courts. The advantages of CJ: SSS include:
• The supply of an Advance Information bundle for the Defence, court/ District Judge/YOS/Probation where relevant before the first hearing;
• An increase in more effective first hearings, with more pleas being entered at first hearing and a reduction in unnecessary adjournments; and
• A reduction in the length of time between first hearing and trial.
However, recent evaluation has indicated that there is still overbuild especially in anticipated guilty plea cases. Consequently there is a need to reduce this bureaucracy, balanced against maintaining effective first hearings. This has led to the development of SP.
The Government is determined that magistrates’ courts should ensure that the throughput of one and a half million cases a year is dealt with more simply, swiftly and in a manner that is consistent with fair summary justice.
The CJ: SSS initiative has now rolled out across England and Wales. Data shows that improvements in the process are being made by dealing with more cases at first hearing, reducing the number of adjournments and moving swiftly to trial.
However, unless the level of the bureaucracy necessary for the production of a prosecution file for likely guilty plea cases is reduced and a more focussed preparation for trial is enforced, the full benefits of CJ:SSS for all agencies will not be realised and may be challenging to maintain in a time of diminishing resources for all CJ agencies.
Under SP, proportionate file preparation will produce a file which has sufficient information to determine the appropriate charge; allow the defence to take instructions and to enter a guilty plea if appropriate and for the bench to understand the nature of the case and to assist in either sentencing or case management where a not guilty plea is entered.
Aims
The Streamlined Process forms part of the Government’s programme to improve efficiency and effectiveness by reducing the amount of over processing witnessed in police file builds.
The primary ambition of the streamlined process is to provide a more proportionate prosecution file to process straight forward volume guilty plea cases suitable for sentencing in the magistrates’ court and for that file to be sufficient for the first hearing in likely contested cases, or more complex cases to enable the Court to make effective case management decsions.