Hounslow’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) scored a string of zeros before being judged as “poor”, in a performance report released today.

The CPS Inspectorate released an assessment of the borough’s team in which several areas of the service were given the lowest score possible.

But borough crown prosecutor Nick Coates insisted action was being taken to address problems after five areas of responsibility, including decision-making, preparation and progression in magistrates’ and crown courts, were deemed to be poor.

He said: “Case preparation and progression is an important aspect that we are urgently working to improve.

“We are training staff to become paralegal officers and assistants to increase our coverage of crown court cases and enable better and more thorough preparation and progression of crown court work which in turn will result in more successful prosecutions.”

In the 12 months to September 2009, only 70 per cent of crown court cases resulted in a successful conviction - worse than CPS London and national figures, 72.7 per cent and 80.7 per cent respectively. However, the proportion of successful cases in magistrates’ court was slightly better than the London average.

The performance assessment concluded: “The quality of decision-making was generally sound, but overall the handling of casework was poor.”

Hounslow was one of 12 boroughs rated as poor out of the 21 so far assessed.

The report also revealed that “staff had not yet been identified to fill some key roles, including managerial ones”.

It stated: “Staffing levels have adversely affected performance and the findings of this report should be considered within this context.

“Only a limited improvement can realistically be expected in Hounslow if staffing levels are not addressed and improved. This is outside the control of the borough and the district.”

Stephen Wooler, CPS Inspectorate chief inspector, said: “The performance in CPS Hounslow needs to be improved substantially even allowing for the pressures and disruptions arising from the number of change initiatives with which it had to cope.

“Case preparation needs to be strengthened significantly, as does the standard of service to victims and witnesses. There are now some positive signs of improvement and staff have remained supportive of each other during this period of change.”

Mr Coates added: “There have been challenging times for the CPS in Hounslow and improvements are needed but I am hopeful that this report will signal the way forward.”

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