CPS Board meeting minutes - April 2020

Monday 20 April, 10:30 – 12:00
Microsoft Teams Meeting

Members

Monica Burch (C), Max Hill QC, Rebecca Lawrence, Mark Hammond, Simon Jeffreys, Caroline Wayman

Guests

Baljit Ubhey, Rachel Zaltzman, Rachel Butterfill, Franziska Hasford, Gary Smith, Harvey Palmer

Secretariat

Head of Private Office, Board Secretariat

Item 1: Minutes of the Last Meeting and Matters Arising

1. The minutes of the last meeting were agreed and progress was noted against outstanding actions.

Item 2: COVID-19 Response Update

2. Max Hill QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, provided an update which included:

• Recruitment 
• Public interest guidance
• Prosecution of offences against emergency workers;#
• Judicial guidance on court listing 
• Recent meetings 

3. Rebecca Lawrence, Chief Executive Officer, provided an update on her recent work which included:

• ICT resilience and home working;
• Criminal Justice System (CJS) Strategic Command meetings; and
• Testing for CJS staff

4. The Board then considered the following:

• whether engagement across CJS at Board-level would be useful in encouraging better working relationships;
• management information with regards to ICT resilience;
• succession planning for the senior leadership team;
• workforce planning and modelling for return to office based working and the possibility of additional outbreaks – the Board would receive an update on the programme of work at a future meeting; and
• Ministerial engagement and policy making.

Item 3: Horizon Scan – COVID-19

5. Rachel Zaltzman, Deputy Director - Strategy, and Rachel Butterfill, Strategic Policy Advisor, presented the horizon scan which examined some of the short, medium and long term implications of the virus on the five strategic aims of CPS 2025. The Board were grateful for presentation and the proposed actions identified.

6. The Board considered the proposed actions and ask that consideration be given to CPS independence.

7. Discussion took place on how to best manage this programme of work, how to ensure it was completed in a timely manner and properly fed back into the organisation.

8. The Board reiterated their thanks for this and asked that focus was placed on CPS independence and international learning. Members were keen that this item came back to CPS Board at a future meeting. [ACTION A1]

Item 4: 2020-21 Business Plan

9. Franzi Hasford and Gary Smith of PwC presented the paper which outlined progress to date as well as specific questions that required 

10. They outlined the contingencies given the COVID-19 outbreak and confirmed that the Executive Group would have to realign priorities depending on situation later in the year.

11. The Board considered the following issues:

• The addition of a stocktake at the end of quarter 1 to ensure that targets were realistic and addressed medium and longer term rebuilding work;
• Scenario planning and how to build this into the business plan if required;
• Engagement with the CPS Board and reporting against performance;
• Casework quality and the Director’s Guidance on Charging.

12. It agreed that a) further scenario planning regarding COVID 19 was required (but this does not need to be further articulated in the Business Plan) [ACTION A2] and b) success measures data would be reported to the Board on a quarterly basis, as a means to track progress against CPS 2025. [ACTION A3]

13. The Board were grateful for the work completed and provided an excellent structure in which to manage the organisation going forwards.

Item 5: Any Other Business

14. Simon Jeffreys, Non-Executive Board Member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, provided an overview of the meeting on 14 April. 

Secretariat
April 2020