New prosecution guidelines

A reader writes in:

I was surprised to receive the below email today regarding new prosecution guidelines which will apply to the Police Prosecution Service and Crown Solicitors from 1 January 2025.

The press release for the new guidelines (attached) states:

“Research over many years has consistently found that Māori are significantly overrepresented in the criminal justice system at every stage, including as victims, and we recognised at the start of the project that the discretion to prosecute may contribute to that. The Guidelines expressly reference these disproportionate impacts and assist prosecutors by providing guidance about the matters to factor into their decisions. I am grateful to the kaitiaki and kaimahi of Ināia Tonu Nei for their wisdom, generosity and commitment. These Guidelines are much better for their input” says Ms Jagose.”

The new guidelines themselves (attached) state:

The guidelines ask prosecutors to think carefully about particular decisions where a person (whether the victim or the defendant) is Māori, or a member of any other group that is disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. This does not promote different treatment based on ethnicity or membership of a particular group; it instead alerts prosecutors to situations and factors that may deliver inequitable outcomes for some people in those groups.

I have not read the full document as it is 208 pages but doubtless there will be much more of the same.

Essentially the new guidelines require prosecutors to take into account race when deciding whether to prosecute someone, or withdraw charges against them. Despite the claim that “this does not promote different treatment based on ethnicity”, it is clearly designed to do exactly that.

As a defence lawyer, when advocating for my clients it will now be logical for me to include in my emails to the prosecution something like “I note that my client is Maori and therefore consideration must be given to the new Solicitor-General’s guidelines when deciding whether it is appropriate to continue with this prosecution.”

The email was sent to lawyers at 2pm on 3 October 2024 and as yet the new prosecution guidelines don’t seem to have been covered by the media.

DPF: I wonder if these new prosecution guidelines were done with the knowledge of Government Ministers? We have the Government saying public services should be based on need, not ethnicity – and Crown Law is saying prosecution decisions must take ethnicity into account.