11.
"With that caution, I would note that the Division had the following conviction rates in the past year: 76 per cent in the High Court, 67 per cent in the District Court and 63 per cent in the Magistrates' Court. By way of contrast the Crown Prosecution Service in England had a conviction rate in 1993-94 of about 57 per cent," he said.
He added that at present, the Prosecutions Division had 99 Crown Counsel, 95 lay court prosecutors and 153 support staff. In 1994, they handled 2,416 appeal cases, 654 cases in the High Court, 683 cases in the District Court and 5,775 cases in the Magistrate's Courts.
"This is an increase of some 38 per cent over the number of cases handled in 1993. Apart from the day to day advisory duties, counsel in the Division also provided 5,236 specialist pieces of advice to various law enforcement agencies in the financial year 1994-95 - an increase of 16 per cent over the previous year," he said.
Mr Mathews also set out some of the improvements made to the Prosecutions Division over the recent years:
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The Division is now sub-divided into 15 units each with its own specialist function and each headed by a Directorate officer, with increased level of professional expertise necessary to handle the complex nature of much of criminal work;
The Director of Public Prosecutions has recently put in place a research and general advice unit, whose duties include reviewing and recommending changes in criminal law and procedure; and assisting in the giving of drafting instructions and commenting on criminal legislation;
A booklet on Prosecution Policy was published in 1993 to further public understanding of the principles that are applied when a decision to prosecute is to be made;
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With regard to the system of briefing-out cases, several important measures have been taken recently in particular, the capping of fees in non-standard cases and the establishment of a Working Party to review the briefing out system.