§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Attorney-General what representations he has received on the regional reorganisation of the Crown Prosecution Service. [50757]
The Attorney-GeneralShortly after this Government were elected, I announced that the Crown Prosecution Service would be reorganised into 42 Areas, establishing a one-to-one relationship between CPS Areas and police areas (save in London where there will be a single CPS Area covering both the Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police).
On 1 June 1998, Official Report, columns 42–45, I published the report of the independent review of the Crown Prosecution Service, set up by this Government under the chairmanship of Sir Iain Glidewell. That report endorses the move to 42 CPS Areas.
Responses received so far to the Glidewell report have welcomed the move to 42 CPS Areas.
My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has today placed in the Library of the House a paper agreed between himself, the Lord Chancellor and myself. The paper outlines the Government's wider intention, as part of the process of modernising the administration of justice, to align the geographical boundaries of the various criminal justice agencies. The move to 42 CPS Areas is part of that re-alignment of boundaries. It will enable the Crown Prosecution Service and other criminal justice agencies to communicate and work together more effectively.