Our ref: 2070

Monday, 21 December 2009

Dear Mr John

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act request which was received 30 November 2009.

It may be helpful if I explain that the Freedom of Information Act is a public disclosure regime. Any information disclosed under it is thereafter deemed to be in the public domain, and therefore freely available to the general public.

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 creates a statutory right of access to recorded information held by public authorities i.e. the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). This right is to be informed whether the information requested is held by the public authority or not, and if the information exists, for it to be communicated. A public authority must reply to such a request promptly and in any event, not later than twenty working days after receipt.

The individual's right to information is not unqualified and subject to a number of exceptions and exemptions that are contained within the Act. The majority of these exemptions are qualified, that is to say the decision whether to confirm or deny the information's existence or to disclose the requested material, will be subject to a public interest.

In order to respond to your request, I will deal with each question in turn:

Please disclose to me, for each month between July 2008 and the present;

 -the monthly total of CPS man hours expended on the Phorm/BT case

 -the monthly total CPS expenditure (excl salaries) on the Phorm/BT case

-the monthly total number of CPS staff working on the Phorm/BT case (if possible by grade)

I can confirm that the CPS does not hold the information you require, the CPS does not record or bill the time spent by CPS Prosecutors and Casework staff on preparing and prosecuting criminal cases. However, you may wish to note that the introduction of Complex Case Time Recording was introduced on 9 November 2009 for Special Crime Divisions (SCD). This exercise will record the time each prosecutor, caseworker and administrator spends on each case in SCD.

Please could you also confirm(*) that the City of London Police;

-submitted a case file to the CPS concerning the Phorm/BT case late last year, in December 2008

-were asked by the CPS to submit 'further evidence' concerning the Phorm/BT case in October 2009

I can confirm that the CPS received a file from the City of London Police on 4 December 2008 concerning the Phorm/BT investigation. In October 2009 after a request from the CPS the City of London Police provided further material for this investigation which in turn has led to additional material of a technical nature to be sought. This evidence should be received towards the end of December 2009, which will then be considered along with all other material available.

Please could you disclose for me

-the average time take to reach a decision to prosecute following a criminal complaint

-the target for reaching a decision to prosecute included in the Core Quality Standards

The CPS Case Management System (CMS) reports the average number of calendar days that has elapsed since the first decision was sought from the police, to the date in which the last decision made was to charge. Data reported on CMS shows that for the twelve month period from November 2008 to October 2009, the average number of calendar days taken to reach this decision was 8.6 days. These data include cases where a decision to charge was made on the same day as the request from the police, either by CPS Direct, an out of hours telephone service; by way of face to face advice; or local telephone advice. Also included are those cases where the police were required to submit further evidence prior to a decision to charge being made; and those more complex cases where detailed written advice was provided to the police.

With regards to the second part of this question the CPS are in the process of seeking agreement with ACPO as to what these timeframes will be. It is expected that these will be agreed in the first quarter of 2010.

If you are unhappy with the decisions in relation to your request from the Crown Prosecution Service you may ask for an internal review within two calendar months of the date of this letter. You should contact the Freedom of Information Unit (Appeals), 50 Ludgate Hill, London, EC4M 7EX, if you wish to ask for a review.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Miss D Freed

Information Management Unit