Reporting to the Procurator Fiscal

Form of report to the Procurator Fiscal

• Introduction
• Prosecution report

Introduction

Once a decision is taken to recommend that proceedings be instituted, or are requested to submit a prosecution report by your line manager, the report should be completed and submitted to an inspector who is authorised to approve submission of a Report to the Fiscal.

It is essential in Scottish legal procedure that corroborated evidence is provided for all material facts that have to be proved. The form of the prosecution report is the same irrespective of whether the case will proceed under summary or under solemn procedure. This section takes you through the prosecution report in the order which it is assembled, but you should be aware that the starting point is the Inspectors Investigation Report

Prosecution report

All prosecution reports in Scotland are now submitted to the Fiscal electronically on the SRAWEB 2 system. The HSE report system is designed to enable the investigation report to be transferred to SRAWEB.  Since the report layout is designed by Crown Office for all non-police agencies to use and is based on police reporting format inspectors should follow the guidance below on correct use of headings.

Prosecutions Reports should follow the following format:

1) The Inspector’s Investigation Report which follows the standard SRAWEB format. (LPS 1 amended) is on the HSE Forms intranet site.  The form is divided and headed into Part 1 “SUMMARY” which is for factual findings and will be disclosed by the Fiscal and Part 2 –  ANALYSIS /IDENTIFICATION OF ACCUSED. Part 2 will not be disclosed by the Fiscal unless required to by the court. The Report should be signed and dated when complete.

• The litigation officer will copy and paste the Inspector’s Investigation Report into the SRAWEB 2 submission and, apart from the draft complaint, list of witnesses, and any previous convictions, this is the only information that the Fiscal will have when they decide whether to proceed with the prosecution. There is sufficient space in the SRAWEB submission for most Inspectors’ Investigation Reports (such as LPS 1 amended). However there may be difficulty with over long reports so Inspectors should (as with all reporting) practice the art of clarity and brevity and exclude extraneous material.
• Where, in exceptional circumstances, such as a major incident, the Investigation Report is very long, you should discuss the method of submission with the Fiscal. In those circumstances a summary may be appropriate.
• There are fixed headings described below which must be used though there is scope for using appropriate subheadings in the section “Remarks” and some are suggested.  Inspectors should delete those that are not used.

Text removed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

2) Draft complaint(s). Use LPS 2, which will be copied and pasted by the litigation officer into the SRAWEB submission. It is essential that all draft complaints make use of an existing (ISCJS) charge code where one exists. Inspectors must scrutinise the list of available charge codes to find an appropriate and correct charge. Inspectors should follow the wording of the relevant charge code and refer to the charge code reference number. Charge codes are kept on the community of interest web site. Where there is no appropriate existing charge code, draft a charge and, once the prosecution is approved, an application will be made for a new charge code. Remember we cannot make application until the case is approved and obtaining a code can take up to 6 weeks.

3) Prepare a list of witnesses on form LPS 3, this will be copied and pasted into the SRAWEB submission by the litigation officer.

4) It is also now necessary to prepare and maintain the table (Form LPS 11) detailing disclosure reconciliation of statements and PCOCs (previous convictions or charges). It is the Investigating Inspectors responsibility to maintain this document. It should contain a list of all witnesses from whom statements were taken during an investigation, irrespective of whether the statements have been submitted to the Fiscal (i.e. are needed to support the prosecution). Details should be included even if the statement was only a note in the Inspectors notebook of a statement. Accordingly, Investigating Inspectors must ensure that any other investigators, such as specialists, provide such details.

• This information is now needed because of a High Court ruling regarding the responsibility of prosecutors to disclose all information to the defence and to make a statement that they have done so. The table will, in effect, be such a statement and will be disclosed. It is essential that every care is taken to ensure that it is accurate and complete. Investigators may be held to account by the court if information is not properly recorded and disclosed.
• Since HSE is unlikely to have information on PCOCs then this column should normally be marked N/K.
• The table is a living document and must be maintained up to the time of trial. An up to date copy should be sent on request of the Fiscal. Where the case is being treated by the Fiscal as a potential solemn case which will proceed as a Sheriff & Jury or High Court case an up-to-date table should be submitted with the first batch of statements and, if further statements are submitted, a fresh up-to-date table should be submitted with additional statements or batches of statements so that, at each stage, there will be a full record of the current position. It is essential that there is a contemporaneous record of the position at all stages, fully updated at the following critical stages
• when the precognition is submitted to Crown Counsel for instructions to indict the accused - this will be by face-to-face precognition of the Investigating Officer to ensure that all disclosure issues have been properly dealt with.
• as part of the preparation for the Preliminary Hearing/First Diet – this is likely to be by precognition of the Investigating Officer
• immediately before the start of the trial – this is likely to be by precognition of the Investigating Officer
• At the discretion of the Investigating Officer, precognoscer or Trial Depute at any stage where further enquiries are ongoing.
• The issue of disclosure is rapidly changing in Scotland so all investigators should be alert to developments.

5) Next are the details of evidence to be adduced on Form LPS 4. This document is not submitted to the Fiscal in SRAWEB but it is an essential tool to enable the approval officer to check evidential sufficiency and approve the prosecution report.

6) Next are details of any previous convictions on Form LPS 5.

7) Next file all witness statements (LPS 10 for Section 20, or LPS 9 for voluntary statements), originals and typed copies. These are for the approval officer to consider, they will not be sent to the Fiscal unless requested. Each statement should be accompanied by a statement summary form (LPS 6), which should be filed with the statement. This summarises the key facts that witness will speak to, productions spoken to, and any other important information about the witness. This is a new document for use in Scotland designed to help the Fiscal and approval officer to identify key witnesses and their evidence. For practical purposes the Fiscal should be able to use (LPS 6) as a checklist when leading evidence from the witness to ensure that witness has delivered all their critical evidence.

• Next file all productions that support the case, including photographs and expert reports. These should be preceded by a productions summary sheet (LPS 7) listing the productions and the names of witnesses who will speak to them. NB statements taken under caution from suspects are productions and should be included in this part of the report and identified in the witness statements of the inspectors who carried out the interview.

• The issue of disclosure discussed above also applies to productions. Crown Office have not prepared any particular form for listing productions, including those that are not to be used in court. Accordingly you should also detail on this form ALL productions taken during an investigation, even those not intended to be produced to support the prosecution. This will enable the Fiscal to disclose information about unused productions to the defence. For solemn cases, the posi tion is as set out at para 4).

8) The Prosecution Report should be filed in the blue cover currently used. There is no need to prepare the second (buff) copy until the Fiscal requests a full report either to help there decision to proceed, or for trial preparation. The Investigating Inspectors Report and all other documents should be saved in an appropriate drive so that the litigation officer can access it (suggest that each operational team opens a SRAWEB PR folder).

9) The Investigating Inspector or Principal Inspector by local agreement should prepare letters to be sent to the company, safety representatives, injured person or bereaved family and Victim Information and Advice (VIA) for fatal accidents, as appropriate, informing them that investigation is complete and a Report (do not say Prosecution Report) sent to the Procurator Fiscal. These letters should be undated as they will be dispatched by the litigation officer when the PR is sent to the Fiscal (and not before). It is a matter for local decision as to who should sign the letters.

10) Submit the Prosecution Report to their approval officer for approval (see Approval of Prosecution Reports). The report should be accompanied by a completed EMM Decision Record Form.

11) The approval officer should prepare an approval minute, Form LPS 8 to certify that the proposed case meets the HSC Enforcement Policy and the evidential sufficiency test.

12) The papers (with a note of where the report has been electronically filed) should then be sent to the litigation officer to obtain the charge code if required or to prepare the case for SRAWEB submission.