Written evidence to be reported to the House
Counter-Terrorism Bill
4:00 pm
Sir Ken Macdonald: No, it is not a characterisation that I share. We created the counter-terrorism division in 2006 to create a centre of world expertise in prosecuting this work. We have achieved that, and we have a 92 to 93 per cent. conviction rate. We have more experience than any other public prosecutors in the world with this sort of work, and we do it to an exceptionally high standard. We have an extremely close relationship with the counter-terrorism command at Scotland Yard. Miss Hemming and her colleagues work daily with officers from the very earliest stages of investigation, often well before arrest and sometimes at the stage when operations are being designed. The model that we now follow in our relationship with the police, which we refer to as the prosecution team, is for prosecutors and investigators to work together at the earliest stages, as they have traditionally done in other jurisdictions, so that we can obtain the best evidence in admissible form at the earliest possible stage, and present the strongest case at trial. We have a close and enduring relationship with the police, which involves early working on cases.