The letter from the grandly titled ‘Programme Director, CJS Efficiency Programme’ at the CPS poses more questions than it answers.

Downloading every case in a court building on to the computer of each prosecutor at a court building on a particular day places those prosecutors under an obligation actually to prepare them.

Anyone who has any experience of court work will realise that an impatient court or a brow-beating defence advocate anxious to get on will insist on a prosecutor dealing with a case from someone else's court that has not been prepared. That is how serious mistakes are made.

John Edwards, JDL Edwards, Neston, Cheshire