CPS sets out Action Plan to tackle disproportionality in charging decisions

An ambitious plan to tackle racial disproportionality and safeguard fair prosecution decision-making for all has been published today by the Crown Prosecution Service.

At the heart of this will be a change to the Code for Crown Prosecutors - the guidance by which prosecutors make their decisions – which will be designed to eliminate racial bias in decision-making.

The action plan has been developed after research, commissioned by the CPS and overseen by an independent Disproportionality Advisory Group, found that defendants from minority ethnic backgrounds were significantly more likely to be charged for a comparable offence than white British defendants. More details can be found in the research summary report.

This research builds on findings from an earlier study, published in February last year, which found evidence of disparity. The latest research has sought to understand this in more detail and importantly identify the actions that can be taken to address it.

Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, said: “The decisions we make as prosecutors have a profound impact on the lives of victims and defendants. It is vital we hold ourselves to the highest standards of accountability and transparency.

“As Director of Public Prosecutions, I am doing just that. For us to bring meaningful change we must scrutinise and challenge how we work, particularly our legal decision-making. We have undertaken a detailed and rigorous research programme, and it is apparent from the data that there have been racial disparities in our legal decision-making. This is clearly unacceptable, and I apologise, both personally and on behalf of the organisation. I deeply regret that this has occurred.

“Although the ultimate decision of guilt or innocence is for the courts, I am determined the CPS will eliminate any possible bias in our decision-making.

“Our systems and processes need to change to identify and tackle disparity and our ambitious action plan is an important step towards achieving this.

“I am grateful for the scrutiny of our independent advisors in overseeing the research and their check and challenge as we developed the action plan and, importantly, as we move ahead with delivering on this.”

In response to the findings, several key actions will be put in place, including:

• A change to the Code for Crown Prosecutors to make sure that identifying and addressing bias is considered by prosecutors before a charging decision is made.
• The development and use of digital tools and learning, education, development and training to identify bias and support decision making.
• A new CPS and National Police Chiefs’ Council Race Disproportionality Board, which allows for continuous check and challenge between prosecutors and police.
• We will also improve how the CPS works with other agencies to address racial bias within the criminal justice process.
• A Joint Enterprise Scrutiny Panel in every CPS area to provide feedback on our decision-making and approach in cases which can disproportionately involve defendants from minoritised communities.
• The plan will be implemented over a three-year period and CPS will have continual engagement with stakeholders, including our independent Disproportionality Advisory Group.

The Disproportionality Advisory Group said: “The DAG is pleased to have contributed to the CPS’s work to identify and eradicate racial disparities in its charging decisions. The research conducted by the CPS is rigorous and demonstrative of a conscientious attempt to understand the nature and scale of the problem.

“The framing of the outcomes from the research and the actions flowing from this are matters for the CPS leadership, and perhaps inevitably there may be some differences in the preferred approach. The DAG recognises that such differences are a natural part of its advisory role and reflect its responsibility to provide an independent perspective.

“Ultimately, the DAG is encouraged by the DPP’s commitment to addressing systemic issues and eliminating racial disparity in the future by improving organisational systems and processes.”

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dr Alison Heydari, programme director for the Police Race Action Plan, said: “The Crown Prosecution Service has consistently shown its commitment to challenging any racial disparity in its work, which is something we in policing have also committed to through the Police Race Action Plan.

“A key theme to emerge from our conversations with Black communities is the need for us to work together with other agencies to tackle discrimination and make our services truly anti-racist.

“The CPS is leading the way in this area through this research as well as our proposals for a joint disproportionality board, where we will support and hold one another to account for delivering improvements.

“I am determined to work across policing and the wider criminal justice system, as well as with civil society groups and our communities, to deliver systemic and lasting change.”

Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Justice Board, Stephanie Roberts-Bibby, said: "The Youth Justice Board is committed to tackling persistent ethnic disparities within the youth justice system, and recently published our own anti-racism statement. We therefore welcome the CPS’s important research and action plan, which reflects our shared ambition to eradicate racial over-representation. As part of our ongoing work, we are dedicated to ensuring that children, regardless of their background, receive fair and unbiased treatment. The YJB fully supports the CPS's efforts to become an anti-racist organisation, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration to drive meaningful change in the youth justice sector."

Background

In 2021, the CPS commissioned the University of Leeds to look at the outcomes of CPS charging decisions for evidence of disparity. This research (Pina-Sánchez and Lewis, 2022) looked at the outcomes of decisions made between January 2018 and December 2021 that led to a charge, a caution, or no further action.

A summary of this research was published by the CPS in 2023 which covered the differences in the national charging rates between different ethnic groups.

The Leeds research demonstrated that there had been disproportionality in CPS’ charging decisions, but it did not explain why this disproportionality exists.

That same year the CPS commissioned a further research programme to expand on the Leeds research so that we could understand more about the underlying factors that contribute to racial disproportionality in charging decisions.

Key findings of this second phase include:

• No significant differences in characteristics could have explained the disparity, including previous convictions and socio-economic status.
• There was no difference in the amount of evidence provided in police files to suggest that as a reason for disproportionality.
• Research by Aston University called corpus linguistics which allowed them to analyse large samples of text to uncover implicit patterns of language, found a clear difference in language used by both police and prosecutors. No explicit racism or biases in the text were found, but more direct and definitive language was used in respect of mixed ethnicity suspects.
• Research on how the Code for Crown Prosecutors is applied revealed potential for unconscious bias to have an impact.