CPS raids universities to solve lawyer shortage

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is to tackle a shortage of recruits by taking on students straight from university, while also involving private practice firms in their training.The scheme, reintroduced in September last year after an eight-year absence, is now available only to CPS employees at 'level B' - caseworkers and legal executives.

Next year it will be open to all.A CPS spokesman said: 'We stopped the training scheme a long time ago because we were getting enough lawyers from private practice.

Now that has changed, we are looking to offer sponsorship through the legal practice course and provide full legal training.'He said that as the CPS can only provide training in criminal law, trainees would take a six-month secondment with private practice firms to complete qualification.He added that some will be sent out to other government departments such as the Inland Revenue and the Treasury Solicitors Department 'so they can get public-sector experience'.There are currently 35 trainees on the scheme, all of whom are existing CPS staff and have sat the LPC.

The spokesman said: 'We have always paid for our staff to sit a law degree and an LPC if necessary, but it stopped there.

Now we can take them even further and boost our staff numbers at the same time'.Rodney Warren, chairman of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said: 'Anything which gives opportunities to young people to train and qualify as solicitors is welcome.'I don't doubt the CPS will be able to offer a very interesting career path to in-house lawyers - one private practices are envious of.

I don't know why they haven't done it before.'By Andrew Towler