On behalf of my colleagues within the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), I feel I need to comment on the article in which Andy Hall QC was so critical of the CPS initiative to use an increasing number of in-house higher court advocates (HCAs) (see [2007] Gazette, 2 August, 5).


I have worked with some excellent lawyers over the years in Lancashire CPS and as a solicitor I am pleased we now have the opportunity within the organisation to showcase these people in the Crown Court. The additional training a CPS prosecutor has to go through in order to be an HCA is a rigorous extra step which is not required if you are in private practice. It equips our HCAs with all the theoretical and practical information they need to do the job well, in fact very well.



Sue Crabb, Lancashire CPS, Preston