Pressure on the criminal justice system is increasing, says the interim HM Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service Anthony Rogers in the inspectorate’s annual report on the CPS, which spoke of ‘growing caseloads, backlogs, and delays in the system, increasing pressures and workloads’.
In a letter to the Attorney General that opens the 33-page report, Rogers wrote: “Our inspections highlight that the caseloads of individual prosecutors and operational delivery staff across the whole of the CPS are at levels that have never been seen before. The increase in remand prisoners means that the burden of managing cases with custody time limits has increased. In our follow-up inspection on custody time limits, we heard from staff and managers that custody time limit monitoring is a necessary industry which takes away time and resource from legal decision making and other case progression tasks.”
While the CPS recruited ‘large numbers’ of lawyers as a result of a ‘budget uplift after a 2021 review, that means ‘additional burdens’ of training, support and management time needed to induct those recruits, who ‘are placed in magistratesโ court units to develop their skills and experience’.
In more detail, the report stated that the ‘loss of experienced staff offered limited opportunity for new starters to learn from seasoned colleagues and as a result, many new recruits find themselves navigating a high-pressure environment without adequate support and supervision to develop skills’. Likewise the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) which the inspectorate also covers ‘struggles to compete in the market to retain its own staff, engage external staff and counsel, and attract those with the necessary experience to maintain and progress its cases’.
As for victims of crime, the report said that ‘delay in cases coming to court and the continuing increase in Crown Court case numbers means that much more work is required to keep victims engaged’. Too often, victims are left disappointed by the response they receive, the report admitted.
About the CPS
The CPS has some 7100 staff and a budget of ยฃ862.8m. Whereas ‘live cases’ as of March 2023 was 146,173, roughly half between magistrates and crown courts, the total for March 2024 was 161,264.
Earlier this year a report by the Criminal Justice Joint Inspectorate said that systemic issues with recruitment and retention across the criminal justice system were seriously impacting criminal justice agenciesโ ability to deliver a high-quality service to victims of crime. Visit https://hmcpsi.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/report/annual-report-2023-24/.
The CPS meanwhile has launched Go Prosecute, a development programme for newly qualified barristers to gain prosecution experience.
