Prosecutions call

There needs to be greater uniformity throughout prosecution organisations outside the Crown Prosecution Service - but the establishment of a single body in their place should be resisted, according to new research.Organisational Prosecutions by Gary Slapper, director of the Open University's law programme, found huge disparities in the number of prosecutions carried out by the 23 non-CPS agencies, with 80% of the 9,689 cases being brought by just four of them.The research, carried out at three regional magistrates' court (Horseferry Road in London, Newcastle- under-Lyme and Milton Keynes) found county councils, the Department of Transport, the TV Licence Enforcement Office and the Department of Social Security to be the major prosecutors.

County councils accounted for 41% of all prosecutions, while at the other end of the scale, the Environment Agency and the Department of Trade and Industry brought 1% and 0.4% of all cases respectively.The most successful prosecutor was the Inland Revenue with a 99% conviction rate, while electricity supply companies successfully convicted only 27.8% of defendants.Dr Slapper said: 'There is plenty of scope for shared practice and organisation between the agencies and this should be debated.

However, each of the agencies having their own areas of expertise and different prosecuting strategies are clear reasons not to introduce a central prosecuting agency.'The research revealed that only 2.1% (203) of defendants in non-CPS cases were represented in court.Andrew Towler