Crown Prosecution Service (Hansard, 1 February 2001)

§ 35. Mr. Dobbin
To ask the Solicitor-General what assessment he has made of the effect of changes in funding recently announced for the CPS on the morale of the service. [146811]

§ The Solicitor-General
As some Members of this House will know, the CPS has secured additional funding for next year of £30.4 million from the new criminal justice reserve. This is in addition to the extra resources allocated to the CPS from the 2000 spending review announced last July. As a result, the CPS's budget next year will be 23 per cent. higher in real terms than now.
Through the CPS's consultation machinery and my own frequent visits to the areas, I know that news of the additional funds has been welcomed by staff. This is hardly surprising. A staff survey, published last May, showed that securing adequate funding and improving resource allocation were among the key development priorities staff identified to improve morale within the service. When the next survey is undertaken I have no doubt that it will show a significant improvement in morale.
With the new funding secured, the CPS has launched a national recruitment campaign for lawyers and intends to follow this with a similar campaign for caseworkers shortly. Additional staff are being recruited across the service, targeted at those areas with the greatest need.

§ 36. Mr. Brake
To ask the Solicitor-General how many times in the last 12 months he has initiated a prosecution in a case which the CPS had previously decided not to pursue. [146812]

§ The Solicitor-General
The relationship between the Attorney-General and the Director of Public Prosecutions is one of superintendence and it is in the context of those arrangements that the accountability of the Crown Prosecution Service for individual case decisions is secured.
If the Crown Prosecution Service tells a suspect or defendant that there will not be a prosecution, the Code for Crown Prosecutors provides that that is normally the 284W end of the matter. There are special reasons why a case might be re-started by the CPS, especially if it is serious: for example, where initially there was insufficient evidence to proceed but further significant evidence comes to light; or in rare cases where a decision not to prosecute was clearly wrong and ought not to stand. The CPS does not keep central records of re-instituted cases.