Sir Nicholas: police and CPS must work together

The former Attorney General airs his views on BBC Radio Dur: 3'31"

Debate on Reform of CPS Rages On

The Home Office has confirmed that Home Secretary, Jack Straw, was already conducting a review of police disciplinary procedures when Dame Barbara Mills called for an inquiry on Friday.

The former Attorney-General Sir Nicholas Lyell has said police and the Crown Prosecution Service should work much more closely together to make the system work. And campaigning barrister Geoffrey Robertson QC said police officers must be forced to give evidence to inquests after deaths in police custody.

Sir Nicholas, the Attorney General under the last Conservative government, told the BBC's Today programme he wanted to see prosecutors in police stations working with "admin support units" in the police to ensure close links.

On the same programme, Mr Robertson said: "What we must move towards is a more inquisitorial system where people who do have powers, like the police - and where someone dies in custody - are required to give evidence at an inquiry into the death and there is no right to silence."

Geoffrey Robertson QC and Fred Broughton, Chairman of the Police Federation voice their views on the CPS
Dur 6' 41"

Dame Barbara has sanctioned an urgent independent inquiry into her own department - the Crown Prosecution Service - and its handling of serious complaints against the police.

Dame Barbara: inquiry results may force her to resign

She also asked the inquiry to consider the handling of two cases in which police officers were not prosecuted in spite of deaths in custody. The two cases, which the CPS has already agreed to review after court hearings this week, relate to the deaths in custody of Irish-born father of seven Richard O'Brien and of Nigerian asylum-seeker Shiji Lapite.

Both cases were pursued by the men's widows after the CPS had decided not to prosecute.

Dame Barbara shrugged off suggestions that she should resign, though she did not rule out the possibility of standing down after the inquiry findings are published, saying: "I think we will wait to see what happens."

A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General, Mr John Morris QC, has made it clear that he is not pressing for Dame Barbara's resignation.

"He was consulted about setting up this inquiry and he is fully in support of it," she said.

The terms of reference of the inquiry will be announced on Monday, July 28. The conclusions of the report are to be made available to Sir Ian Glidewell and his team, who are currently reviewing the CPS as a whole.