With full support to victims and witnesses, more are attending court to give evidence.
Rarely does a witness from Warwickshire fail to attend court on trial day. This impacts on the quality of the evidence available for the prosecution and invariably means a guilty result.
Quite often, once a defendant realises that all witnesses have turned up to give evidence, he/she pleads guilty, saving the expense of a full trial, albeit at this late stage.
Warwickshire boasts one of the highest effective trial rates over a sustained period of time. This is where, because all witness attend court to give their evidence, the case goes ahead (unless the defendant suddenly pleads guilty prior to the trial).
The benefits are, of course, financial savings in costly trials. This saves costs for the prosecution and the courts. Other benefits are that witnesses don't always have to go through the ordeal of giving evidence when the defendant suddenly pleads guilty after being overwhelmed by the evidence they face.
The message has got through to defence lawyers and defendants that, in Warwickshire, all witnesses attend court to give their evidence in a confident manner. This often has a bearing on a defendant's plea well before the trial date.
All this means that there is public confidence in the criminal justice system and confidence in individual agencies, especially the prosecuting agencies - police, CPS and the courts.
In Warwickshire an ongoing survey of victims and witnesses involved in the criminal justice system, and supported by VIP, indicates that 84% of victims and witnesses are satisfied/very satisfied with the criminal justice system and 94% are satisfied/very satisfied with the services offered by VIP.