Angry Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyers have this week slated an overhaul of the way their areas' performances are rated, warning that it will demoralise staff and prove pointless unless more resources are put in and better joined-up thinking is adopted by the government.

Announcing its new ratings system last week, HM CPS Inspectorate (HMCPSI) said it would rate the 42 prosecutors' regions as 'excellent', 'good', 'fair', or 'poor' under a new overall performance assessment system.


The outcomes, to be announced early next year, will be based on their performance according to 14 criteria, including managing cases in the Crown and magistrates' courts, pre-charge decision making, ensuring successful outcomes, providing services to victims and witnesses and presenting and progressing cases in court.



However, Kris Venkatasami, national convenor for prosecutors' union the First Division Association, argued that many CPS lawyers would be left feeling dispirited if they were put in the lower categories. 'People will find it a demoralising exercise,' he said. 'It will have the same effect as league tables [in other sectors] where you are branded the worst hospital or the worst school.


'I expect it will prove to be unhelpful because it is not going to add anything to the system to label people as failures. It would be better to highlight the issues and try and address them in a way that doesn't damage morale.'


Mr Venkatasami also called for the government to wake up and realise that Home Office policies had an effect on the criminal justice system. 'It is all very well labelling areas as "poor", but will more resources be given to improve their performance?' he said. 'New [criminal justice] initiatives take up more resources, and that must be appreciated.'


Previous HMCPSI reports have highlighted regional discrepancies in CPS offices' performance, while FDA members have threatened to strike over pay.


The HMCPSI argued it was not out to name and shame regions that were rated as 'poor' but to set a benchmark, help target resources in the areas that most required them and to provide support. Chief inspector Stephen Wooler said it would work with CPS managers to give help where it was needed. 'Where we identify poor performance, we will focus our resources to assist in promoting improvement,' he explained.


A CPS spokeswoman said it was committed to making improvements. 'The work of the HMCPSI, including the new overall performance assessments, will continue to be an important part of the process of improving performance across all CPS areas,' she added.