Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 90
90
Accepted
Establish greater incentives for alternative disposals to charging and prosecuting individuals in court.
Recommendation
We recommend the Home Office work, in collaboration with the NPCC, to put more incentives in place for alternative disposals to charging and prosecuting individuals in court, where they have been proved effective and better fit with victims’ needs and wants. If alternative disposals can speed up the delivery of the justice to which victims and survivors are entitled, while reducing court backlogs, everyone benefits. (Paragraph 226) Policing priorities 71
Government Response Summary
The government states that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 already introduced reforms to simplify and provide more consistency to the Out of Court Disposals framework, noting it is too early to predict the impact on speeding up justice or reducing court backlogs.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
123. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 introduced reforms by simplifying the current framework on Out of Court Disposals (OoCD). The changes are intended to provide much more consistency to the Police, victims and offenders. 124. The new framework reduces the number of adult out of court disposals from six to two, comprising of an upper tier disposal titled ‘Diversionary Caution’ and a lower tier disposal titled ‘Community Caution’. 125. As the new framework is yet to go live across all forces in England & Wales, it is too early to predict if this will help to speed up justice and reduce court backlogs.