Central civil government - Crown Prosecution Service

About the FPS

The newly created Fraud Prosecution Service is a self-contained and high-profile unit within the Crown Prosecution Service. The FPS will be responsible for the prosecution of national fraud (and economic crime) cases falling outside the criteria of the Serious Fraud Office.

The Approach

AMTEC Consulting was asked to provide quality assurance on the viability, robustness, method and structure of the new service. Assurance work was carried out over a short, but highly demanding time scale in which the following aspects of the project were considered:

the organisation structure and use of forensic accountants.
case management.
robustness, agility and viability, and performance indicators.
strategy and tactics.
systems and people aspects.
application of project management ideas to case management.

Interviews were held, with a wide range of stakeholders, including the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Chief Crown Prosecutor, The Director of Serious Casework, Project Board members, senior management, lawyers, caseworkers and the police.

The work required a high-level of effective dialogue and discussion of issues and evidence for factual accuracy and context on regular occasions as the work progressed. A substantial amount of documentation was reviewed as well as on-screen case sampling.

The Outcome

The CPS project team valued the enthusiasm, commitment and capacity with which the work was carried out and the highly workable and valid set of recommendations proposed in the report. The quality of work was also acknowledged by senior figures within the criminal justice system during a formal presentation by the project team and the new Director of Fraud.