DISCRIMINATION: specialist prosecutors recommended

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) should abandon the practice of plea bargaining with defence solicitors over charges in racially motivated offences as it is alienating ethnic minorities from the criminal justice system, an independent report on discrimination in the service suggested this week.

The report - which follows a study of almost 13,000 CPS files by consultant Professor Gus John - found no conclusive evidence that there was any bias within the CPS, although it noted there were still discrepancies.

It highlighted more objections to bail for Afro-Caribbean and Asian defendants, who were also more likely to be tried in the Crown Court, and more failed and discontinued cases where the defendant was from an ethnic minority.

Prof John recommended appointing specialist prosecutors to oversee the prosecution of racially motivated and religious crimes.

He commended CPS guidance on reducing charges in racially aggravated offences, which could infer that prosecutors should not invite defence solicitors to offer pleas, but suggested this should be more explicit as it was the most damaging factor to ethnic minorities' confidence in the system.

Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, welcomed the recommendation.

'Anything that is going to aid equality and transparency of process has got to be worth exploring,' he said.

Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir David Calvert-Smith, said the CPS had drastically improved, while admitting that 'sub-conscious' bias could still exist.

Paula Rohan