No two days will be the same for a local authority prosecuting lawyer. With a wide range of legal powers available to local authorities, lawyers will be asked to advise on a broad spectrum of enforcement action ranging from blue badge misuse, illicit vapes and social housing fraud to food hygiene and health and safety breaches, non-school attendance, fly tipping, animal welfare and many more. These investigations can often lead to the commencement of criminal proceedings.
Workloads will no doubt already be considerably full. The ongoing backlog of cases yet to be heard in criminal Courts can create a higher workload (trials in the Crown Court are now being listed as far away as 2028). Whilst new instructions continue to arrive, older cases persist as they await their long-awaited trial dates.
Criminal Courts themselves are also of course under pressure. There is often heavy, over listing of cases in any one day, particularly at Magistrates Courts. Whilst courts try to accommodate non CPS/Private Prosecutions, Local Authority prosecutions are frequently listed alongside CPS matters. Therefore, when those are deemed more urgent, the Local Authority prosecutions end up being adjourned.
The cost-of-living crisis is putting extra pressure on local businesses and, as a result, we are seeing dips in regulatory compliance, a good example being failing to purchase commercial waste contracts in an attempt to cut running costs. This, in turn, can increase incidents of fly tipping. Many councils are, as a result, increasing their work force and recruiting additional investigating officers to secure compliance, but this is then placing greater demands on legal services.
Meanwhile, with unprecedented budget constraints, Local Authorities are under growing pressure to control spend. Prosecutions can be costly and there is no guarantee that the costs incurred in bringing a prosecution will be awarded by the court, yet alone successfully recovered from a defendant.
Local authority prosecutors have to try and manage cases in a hybrid way – an unhelpful mix of paper and digital. Without always being able to access the courts’ digital case systems, local authority case papers are still being served by post in many scenarios. The courts are fast moving away from ‘paper files’ (partly as they can no longer store thousands of pages of case papers). It is important for prosecutors to get bundles/ documentation emailed to the court in good time for the hearings (and also checking they have been received). Ensuring that is done in good time is important as Magistrates can often be unfamiliar with local authority prosecution offences so need, an opportunity to be able to read the documents in advance of the hearing.
With the above in mind and at a time of financial scrutiny, here are our tips for local authority prosecutors to help limit the costs incurred in prosecuting a case. These tips apply equally to other prosecutors.
- Try to keep the number of court hearings required during the lifetime of a prosecution to a minimum wherever possible. Ensure all statements and evidence are served in good time to allow defendants sufficient opportunity to seek legal advice and prepare for their first hearing. This can reduce the number of unnecessary adjourned hearings. Include warrant warnings in all correspondence with defendants (where applicable) to allow for warrant applications to be made at the earliest opportunity. Have an endorsed certificate of posting or other evidence of proper service available. This will allow for applications to be made to prove matters in the absence of a defendant as opposed to further adjourning matters.
- Be ready to make submissions as to why your case should go ahead in a heavily listed court session (particularly if there have already been numerous adjournments in your case).
- Ensure all parties are notified of court hearings or any subsequent adjournment dates in good time. If any requests are made by a defendant for an adjournment, these should be dealt with administratively wherever possible (if the court allows) to avoid unnecessary attendance at court.
- Secure early guilty pleas wherever possible. A detailed case summary accompanying the prosecution case papers can help unrepresented defendants to understand the case alleged against them. This may allow for early acceptance of those allegations, resulting in a quicker resolution of the case.
- Consider your options for the recovery of monies. Are you pursuing a confiscation application under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 or an Unlawful Profit Order under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013? Is there to be a compensation application? Review the local arrangements for the receiving of monies paid by defendants to HMCTS where orders for costs are awarded.
- Does your case require a ticketed District Judge, and if so, has the request been made to the court in writing in good time?
- Completion of the Preparation for Effective Trial (PET) forms will help to ensure trial issues are identified at the earliest possible stage. This will not only narrow the trial issues (and therefore the time estimate) but can also reduce the number of witnesses required to attend court unnecessarily and help to keep costs down.
- Prepare a detailed costs schedule. Local authority figures can often be higher than CPS totals that Magistrates would expect to see. A fuller, more detailed schedule can help courts properly understand how the cost of the investigation and subsequent prosecution has been calculated, thereby increasing the chance of them being successfully awarded.
- Consider out of court resolutions. Can the public interest be properly served through an alternative route?
Any girl guide will tell you to ‘be prepared’. As an in-house prosecutor for a Local Authority for almost twenty years, I would advise that you should always expect the unexpected. That straightforward hearing you had anticipated can often take unusual turns. However, the tips above should help to keep prosecution costs down at a time when local authorities are having to justify every penny spent.
Emma Hall is an Associate at Bevan Brittan.