The major challenge facing the Office is undoubtedly maintaining prosecutorial services in the face of increasing workloads and resourcing cutbacks. Other major challenges are:

• continued delays in the finalisation of cases, particularly in the Supreme Court;
• the prosecution of an increasing number of regulatory matters, often investigated by agency staff who are not highly trained as investigators or experienced in investigations;
• maintaining appropriate staff development and training in the face of workload and budgetary pressures;
• dealing with issues of security of staff outside the Office, specifically in Court and on the way to Court;
• retention of paralegal staff;
• contributing to legislative reform proposals within existing staffing levels and workload.

A.4 OUTLOOK

Priorities for the coming year include:

• Participating in the reform of case management and listing processes in both the Supreme Court and Magistrates Court;
• Finding ways to contribute to the improvement of the investigation of regulatory matters within the Territory;
• Enhancing continuing legal education opportunities for prosecutors, particularly though in-house training, mentoring, and advocacy exercises;
• Enhance the reporting capability of CASES, thereby assisting in management decision making;
• Exploring ways of doing business electronically, particularly in the acceptance and service of briefs of evidence.

The key influence on the operating environment of the Office is likely to be the listing practices of both the Magistrates Court and the Supreme Court. The Office will continue to contribute to discussions about reforming those practices.

The significant risks facing the Office continue to centre on the retention and recruitment of legal staff, given workload pressures, and pressure on prosecutorial services imposed by the tight fiscal environment. The Office has moved decisively toward an in-house counsel model. As previously noted, the risks associated with this are the increased pressure on prosecutors, and reduced flexibility leading to the possible unavailability of counsel for matters listed in court.

The other significant risk centres on the prosecution of regulatory matters, in circumstances where such matters are complex, and significant to the community. Limited resources within the Office to cope with the expected increase in this sort of work, and deficiencies in the training and resourcing of investigators, are causes for concern.

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ANNUAL REPORT  2011-12  DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS                                                                                    9