CPS woos minorities in recruitment drive

By Sue AllenThe government has unveiled a major recruitment campaign for around 100 more Crown Prosecutors, with ethnic minority lawyers a particular target,following a 30.4 million cash injection.Some of the money from the new criminal justice reserve will go towards speeding up Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reform.

It comes in addition to the 71.3 million allocation made to the CPS in last July's spending review settlement.The 30.4 million was agreed by the Attorney-General, Lord Williams of Mostyn QC, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, and Home Secretary Jack Straw, identifying CPS resources as a priority.The national recruitment campaign for lawyers is beginning this week.

Advertisements are appearing in the Gazette, national newspapers, including The Times, and in The Voice.A spokeswoman said it hoped the campaign would attract more ethnic minority lawyers to join the CPS, which has around 2,100 prosecuting solicitors and barristers in England and Wales.Applicants for the vacancies could expect to earn between 24,684 and 38,498.Peter Herbert, vice-chairman of the Society of Black Lawyers, said he would encourage minority lawyers to join the CPS to help facilitate changes in the service.

Traditionally, the number of minority lawyers in senior management at the CPS is not matched by the number in the service overall, he added.The second stage of the campaign will start next month to attract new caseworkers and administrative staff.The cash injection will take the CPS budget up to 416 million in 2001/2002, which the government said will be 23% higher in real terms than the current financial year.

The criminal justice reserve is worth 100 million in 2001/2002 and 525 million in total over the three years to 2003/2004.The money will also help meet targets to reduce the time taken between arrest and sentence, to improve the service the CPS provides to victims and to strengthen its contribution to tackling serious and organised international crime.'A confident and successful CPS is a prerequisite for an effective and efficient criminal justice system,' said Lord Williams.Malcolm Fowler, chairman of the Law Society's criminal law committee, said that the resourcing implications offast-tracking criminal cases into court mean that all lawyers, including those employed by the CPS, are required to spend more time in court but are still expected to prepare cases.Meanwhile, under budget arrangements made public last week, CPS prosecutors with higher rights of audience will now be able to prosecute in the Crown Court more regularly.Previously, CPS area offices had to pay for private practice solicitor or barrister agents to cover magistrates' court hearings when CPS prosecutors were involved in Crown Court cases.