Legal action by the Law Society has forced the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to back down over the sacking of its sole practitioner agents.

The CPS fired the agents at the end of January, after Revenue & Customs claimed they were effectively CPS employees and presented a £4 million tax bill (see [2006] Gazette, 9 February, 1).


The Law Society launched a judicial review against the service, naming the Revenue as an interested party. The Revenue has now retracted its original claim.


The CPS said it has told area chief Crown prosecutors to contact agents to say they can be re-employed.


But agents themselves fear the damage is already done, with some areas now having no budget - or at best an extremely limited one - for agency work.


The CPS called the suspension of agency staff a 'temporary' measure, now happily resolved, but compensation for sole practitioner agents who did not receive instructions for two months looks unattainable.


'The Revenue has now reached a final determination that the CPS is not required to operate PAYE and NIC (national insurance) liability for those agents... which was the reason for the temporary prohibition,' a CPS spokeswoman said.


Law Society President Kevin Martin said: 'The decision to stop giving work to sole practitioners effectively meant that hundreds of our members were left high and dry. Many solicitors lost out on work and some were left in a serious financial position.'


Ian Lithman, executive member of the Solicitor Sole Practitioners Group, said he was pleased the Society had pushed the Revenue into backing down. 'The Law Society has done an excellent job, and the group is deeply grateful,' he said.


Karen Tunnacliffe, a Doncaster-based sole practitioner, welcomed the climbdown but said recovery from two months without CPS work would not be easy for agents. 'It's not been easy when they pull the plug and take work away from you with no notice at all,' she said. 'It's so difficult to turn the business around and generate work from elsewhere.'


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