This whole approach failing to prosecute because it looks good in terms of statistics ties in with this weekend's exposure of serious & widespread malpractice in the Crown Prosecution Service.
I read it in Sunday's Times, but you need a sub to read it online, so here's a quote and link to the story elsewhere:
A leaked e-mail shows that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) uses a ?Star and Tick? system to keep lucrative and easy cases in house and allocate ?messy? and costly cases to the independent bar, says the Bar Council.
A star would show that the case is either a ?high earner? or where the case would ?crack? in the favour of the CPS because it was weak or witnesses would be unlikely to turn up.
A tick would be made for cases that the CPS did not want to do based on it either being messy and troublesome or just being a low earner.
Maura LcGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar Council, said that ?The public interest demands that the correct advocate is instructed to prosecute a case based on skill and the complexity of the case. Today, we are able to show, with incontrovertible evidence that the CPS is deliberately acting against the public interest and the best people are not being used to prosecute serious crimes.?
Read more: www.economicvoice.com/crown-prosecution-service-acts-against-the-public-interest-says-bar-council/50035270#ixzz2M0n4NpGm
It's a system gone mad, where perspective and judgement vanishes, and real issues of public safety and justice are being sacrificed to a tick box system. We keep seeing this in hospitals, in social work this idea that the statistics are God, and to hell with the actual individuals on the ground. It needs to be challenged, across the board.