The government is drawing up plans for a crackdown on rogue private prosecutors in the wake of the Post Office scandal and flaws in the troubled Single Justice Procedure.
Courts Minister Heidi Alexander has vowed that “justice should never come at the cost of fairness” as she pushes forward an upgrade to the way tens of thousands of people are taken to court every year.
In the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, sub-postmasters were wrongly accused, dragged through the courts, and in some cases jailed on the basis of faulty evidence.
The body was simultaneously the alleged victim - complaining it had lost money - and the prosecuting body in charge of deciding whether to pursue criminal cases.
The Standard’s award-winning investigation into the Single Justice Procedure has exposed deep flaws in that fast-track court process. Train companies have been found bringing criminal cases without providing any evidence, parents have ended up with unlawful convictions for serious truancy charges, and a swathe of TV Licensing and DVLA prosecutions have been brought against sick, vulnerable and elderly people.
The government is now planning a consultation over improved standards for non-police and private prosecutors who use the justice system, which could see the introduction of a new watchdog similar to the body which monitors the work of the Crown Prosecution Service. Prosecutors may also need to seek accreditation or sign up to a statutory code of standards.
Ministers are considering new safeguards built into the Single Justice Procedure to help vulnerable defendants, as well as powers of inspection over prosecuting bodies and greater transparency.
An option to separate investigatory and prosecutorial functions is also being considered, to avoid a repeat of the Post Office fiasco.
“For too long, too many ordinary people have been on the receiving end of a justice system that allows organisations, whether publicly owned or private, to bring lifechanging prosecutions without the same checks and balances required of the police or the Crown Prosecution Service”, said Ms Alexander.
“In the most serious of cases like the Horizon scandal, where the Post Office was able to prosecute hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters on the basis of faulty evidence, it has ruined lives.
“Miscarriage of justice of that scale are thankfully rare, but far more frequently we see vulnerable people handed criminal convictions through the Single Justice Procedure in prosecutions that are arguably not in the public interest.
“Justice should never come at the cost of fairness and the power to bring a prosecution should be exercised responsibly, with appropriate safeguards in place.
“This upcoming consultation will be the first step on a journey to better protect the public and improve the administration of justice for all.”
A public inquiry is investigating the Post Office scandal, which saw hundreds of sub-postmasters prosecuted over allegations of fraud and stolen money.
The cases were built on a cornerstone that the Horizon accounting system could be trusted, when in fact it was riddled with bugs and defects and the Post Office hid for years its knowledge of the problems.
Criminal prosecutions continued to be brought despite internal awareness of the issues with Horizon, and juries were wrongly told the IT system was unimpeachable.
The Standard’s award-winning investigation of the Single Justice Procedure uncovered scores of criminal cases brought over unpaid bills, where powerful mitigation was not even read by prosecutors.
The process allows magistrates to sit behind-closed-doors to decide on cases based on written evidence alone, with no one from the prosecution force present.
Both the DVLA and TV Licensing have resisted calls over the last year to be more involved in the cases they are prosecuting, waiting instead to see if government reform of the system is forthcoming.
Last month, Ms Alexander vowed to haul in prosecuting bodies who use the system for talks on how it can be improved, as she expressed a determination to stamp out “bad practice”.
It came after the news that around 75,000 convictions for train fare evasion are set to be overturned after The Standard exposed widespread misuse of the fast-track courts.
The government’s consultation is expected to be launched early next year.
The Single Justice Procedure deals with an estimated 40,000 low-level criminal cases every month. No plans have been announced to halt prosecutions while reform plans are considered.
