Ann Coffey: ...’t want to. I didn’t want to report the abuse but I was told I had to. It just feels like everything’s my fault and I wish I had never told anyone.” I welcome the new guidelines issued by Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, on cases involving child sexual abuse, which he said would ensure that the focus was on allegations made by victims, rather than their weaknesses...
Lord Wallace of Tankerness: My Rt. Hon Friend the Attorney-General (Dominic Grieve) has made the following written ministerial statement. On 26 January 2012, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC announced that he had asked Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Inspectorate (HMCPSI) to consider the way in which the prosecution team conducted the disclosure exercise in the case of R v Mouncher and others,...
Dominic Grieve: On 26 January 2012, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, announced that he had asked Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Inspectorate (HMCPSI) to consider the way in which the prosecution team conducted the disclosure exercise in the case of R v. Mouncher and others, following the discontinuance of the trial on 1 December 2011. The HMCPSI’s independent review has examined...
Justice: The work of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Witnesses: Keir Starmer, QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, Crown Prosecution Service
Jane Ellison: ...years of this being an illegal act, there have been no prosecutions. In recent times—I will return to the mental health aspects in a moment, Mr Deputy Speaker—we have had encouragement because Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, has been really good on this issue. He has a new action plan for the Crown Prosecution Service. It has reopened several old cases and is going...
Edward Timpson: ..., I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford West and Abingdon, who has pursued with aplomb the issue with which the new clause deals. I also thank the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, for the work he has done during his tenure. He and my hon. Friend have made a valuable contribution. For far too long, vulnerable victims and witnesses have felt intimidated and...
Nicola Blackwood: ..., and prosecutions in Rochdale and Keighley and excellent work in Lancashire show that we are getting our act together. That is not, however, always the case and it is certainly not the perception. Keir Starmer made it clear just days ago that traditional tests by the Crown Prosecution Service to evaluate witnesses have the potential to leave this category of vulnerable witnesses...
Baroness Northover: ...colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Rendell. The Government are also frustrated, as was the noble Baroness, Lady Crawley, by the lack of prosecutions in the past 25 years. We welcome the fact that Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, who published a CPS action plan in November, is seeking to improve prosecutions for FGM. As the noble Baroness will know, a major new programme...
Steve Rotheram: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dobbin. On 19 December 2012, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, issued interim guidelines on prosecuting cases involving communications sent via social media. It was a welcome move in the right direction and I hope that Parliament and the judiciary will study internet abuse more closely and begin, as I have been urging...
Justice, Institutions and Consumer Protection (EU Sub-Committee E): UK’s 2014 Opt-out Decision (Protocol 36).
Witnesses: (at 11.00am) Keir Starmer QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, Crown Prosecution Service; and (at 12.00pm) Commander Allan Gibson, Association of Chief Police Officers; William Hughes, former Director General of the Serious Organised Crime Agency; Aled Williams, former President of Eurojust; and Mike Kennedy, former President of Eurojust and former Chief Operating Officer at Crown Prosecution...
Home Affairs, Health and Education (EU Sub-Committee F): UK’s 2014 Opt-out Decision (Protocol 36).
Witnesses: (at 11.00am) Keir Starmer QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, Crown Prosecution Service; and (at 12.00pm) Commander Allan Gibson, Association of Chief Police Officers; William Hughes, former Director General of the Serious Organised Crime Agency; Aled Williams, former President of Eurojust; and Mike Kennedy, former President of Eurojust and former Chief Operating Officer at Crown Prosecution...
Jenny Chapman: ...of clear, robust protection for victims in these cases, but it seems to be the opinion in most quarters who should know about these things that that is what we already have. To give an example, Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said that the current law worked very well. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, noted that the current law allows home owners great protection. In...
Dominic Grieve: On behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, I am today depositing in the Libraries of both Houses an updated version of the Code for Crown Prosecutors. The code sets out how prosecutors working in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) make decisions and is supported by comprehensive legal guidance on a range of topics, further details of which are available on the CPS...
Fiona Bruce: ...trimmed back; as the recent report by the Joint Committee on Human Rights said, it “constitutes a disproportionate interference with freedom of expression.” The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, has said that “the word ‘insulting’ could safely be removed without the risk of undermining the ability of the CPS to bring prosecutions.” A gap will not be left in the...
Keith Vaz: I welcome the steps taken by Keir Starmer and Nazir Afzal to try to reorganise how the Crown Prosecution Service deals with these matters. However, the fact remains that in relation to Rotherham there have been no prosecutions this year in the whole of south Yorkshire, despite 600 victims having been identified in the past few years. Does the Solicitor-General share my concern? Can we please...
Karl Turner: ...it is astonishing that there has not been a single prosecution. I welcome the recent efforts of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the publication of the Crown Prosecution Service action plan. Keir Starmer QC stated: “It is critical that everything possible is done to ensure we bring the people who commit these offences against young girls and women to justice”. Right hon. and...
Lord Dear: My Lords, I shall respond to one thing. Lest there should be any doubt that I might have been concealing something in the letter from Keir Starmer QC, the DPP, having safely said that you can take "insulting" out of the section, in the last line he says: "However, I also appreciate there are other policy considerations involved". I am bemused. I think that he probably knew something that I...
Baroness Stowell of Beeston: ...to him about that. The noble Baroness, Lady Rendell, spoke in great detail about female genital mutilation so I will not go over that in any detail myself. I am so pleased that she welcomed what Keir Starmer announced at the weekend; we very much share her view that this is absolutely vital. Having that law in place is not enough. We need prosecutions, and action to bring prosecutions to...
Home Affairs: Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Witnesses: Keir Starmer QC, Director of Public Prosecutions and Nazir Afzal OBE, Chief Crown Prosecutor, North West Area; Nick Hardwick, former chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission ; Dame Anne Owers DBE, Chair, Independent Police Complaints Commission, Jane Furniss, Chief Executive, Independent Police Complaints Commission and Ruth Evans, Commissioner, Independent Police Complaints...
Draft Communications Data Bill: Draft Communications Data Bill.
Witnesses: Henry Porter, Columnist, The Observer, Duncan Campbell, Investigative Journalist, IPTV Ltd and Paul Heritage-Redpath, Product Manager and Solicitor, Entanet Opinion; Keir Starmer QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, Crown Prosecutions Service