The popular police station charging programme is at risk because lack of funding means there may not be enough Crown prosecutors to staff the scheme if it is rolled out nationally, it has emerged.

The pilots - which saw responsibility for charging transferred from the police to prosecutors - have been widely accepted as beneficial by all players in the criminal justice system, leading to a reduction in cracked and ineffective trials.


But both the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and prosecutors' union the First Division Association (FDA) have warned that unless the government coughs up more money in its next comprehensive spending review, there will be no way of expanding the project beyond the existing pilot areas.


Kris Venkatasami, convenor of the FDA's CPS section, said the FDA supported the charging scheme but argued that if the government was after 'all-singing, all-dancing, world- class prosecutors', it should 'put its money where its mouth is'. He said: 'The pilots are one thing, but the problem is that you need new lawyers to come in to replace those who are now doing the charging.'


Mr Venkatasami warned that unless more money was allocated in the next spending review, 'the union will have to carefully consider the future with the [government]'.


A CPS spokesman agreed that it had so far still only received the funding to cover half of its regions but said it had presented a 'very strong' bid for more money to the Treasury.