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Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) Efficiency Technical Notes

Explanation

These Efficiency Technical Notes follow from the Gershon Review of Public Sector efficiency and the work streams identified for change. They were formerly reported as Customs & Excise Prosecutions Office (CEPO). They have been revised following the creation of RCPO, which includes the work of CEPO and others and updated accordingly.

Background

The Customs & Excise Prosecutions Office, following the Gower Hammond and Butterfield Reviews, was set to become an independent department reporting to the Attorney General. In October 2004 it was announced that the Inland Revenue Crime Group and the HMCE Asset Forfeiture Unit would join CEPO to form the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office. The legislation to create RCPO was passed in April 2005. The Department’s function is to prosecute all criminal litigation referred by HM Revenue & Customs in England and Wales, efficiently, effectively and in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors. The baseline presented in these notes have been amended to take into account the changes resulting from the combined business.

The Measures

RCPO is using these efficiency measures to work within the SR2004 financial settlement and meet its budgets. Through the implementation of the measures outlined in the Technical Notes, RCPO aims to achieve the Efficiency Review targets of:

However the key priority will be to continue to successfully prosecute criminal cases whilst minimizing the disruption from the creation of the new department.

The Technical Notes set out the method and measures that will be used to achieve the savings within each of the relevant Gershon work streams.

Progress

As a new department RCPO has had many different pressures and priorities. This has included the start of a major programme to include business re-engineering and the various projects needed to deliver both an effective and efficient independent prosecution service. These projects will being to deliver the efficiency savings required towards the end of this year and full savings will be made in future years. RCPO is committed to meet the financial targets set and will look to recover any shortfall from the first year over the subsequent period.