20 October 2006
The Crown Prosecution Service needs to start emulating the most successful private law firms if taxpayers are to be guaranteed value for money, senior MPs said this week.
The Public Accounts Committee said the CPS, together with the police, was responsible for an 'alarming' number of delayed and ineffective trials in magistrates' courts.
PAC chair Edward Leigh said: 'This is not only a waste of taxpayers' money — some £55m a year — but also an affront to society's expectation and demand that the guilty be swiftly brought to justice.'
He added that the CPS needed to review its own organisational structure, ensure working practices were brought up to date and make better use of technology.
'The management of cases must be radically improved,' Leigh said. 'There must be much better awareness of which cases are high-risk so that evidence can be obtained in good time.'
The report, published on October 19, noted that more than 45,000 cases in 2004/05 did not go ahead because the prosecution case was not ready or the CPS dropped the charges on the day of the trial.
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