CPS must review advocacy strategy, inspector says

The Crown Prosecution Service must review its advocacy strategy, the CPS Inspectorate said in a report published last week.

Chief Inspector Michael Fuller said that although at the 'highest strategic level' there was a commitment to focusing on quality, rather than the previous emphasis on volume work which saved the most money, this was not reflected at local level.

Fuller said area managers had 'largely continued to focus' on fee savings in Crown Court cases.

He said there had been 'elements of improvements and decline' since his report in 2009 and there was now less criticism of individual Crown advocates from judges and self-employed barristers.

'However, opportunities are still missed and there are failures to challenge clearly inadmissible and prejudicial evidence,' Fuller said.

'A number of advocates still have an over reliance on case notes and there is a continuing lack of confidence among some Crown advocates.'

In the magistrates' courts, Fuller said associate prosecutors were continuing to perform well and the 'quality of their advocacy differs little from a lawyer with similar experience'.

Michael Todd QC, chairman of the Bar Council, said 'the CPS might congratulate itself on the savings it has made by increasing the deployment of employed Crown advocates in the Crown Court but the report shows that quality of advocacy has suffered as a result.

'Furthermore, fees for self-employed barristers carrying out Crown prosecution work have been declining constantly since 1994.

'Justice does not come at any price, and cut-price justice is not justice at all.'

Keir Starmer QC, the DPP, said the report 'highlights our commitment to quality advocacy', including the successful introduction of the advocacy quality monitoring scheme and continued success of associate prosecutors.