Research hails pilot CPS charging scheme a success

The pilot scheme that saw responsibility for charging suspects switched from the police to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been hailed a success, after research showed it has led to fewer collapsed trials and dropped charges.

The report by independent researchers PA Consulting found that the scheme - piloted in nine sites throughout Avon and Somerset, Essex, north Wales, Kent and west Yorkshire - had slashed the number of ineffective trials (where a hearing is postponed on the day) by 59%.

Cracked trials - where a case is concluded without trial - fell by 27%, although some areas saw a 100% improvement.

It also led to a fall from 51% to 18% in the number of charges being dropped or changed, and a 12% increase in the number of defendants pleading guilty at first hearing.

Overall conviction rates were pushed up by 15%.

There was also an improvement in cases' charge-to-completion times.

The CPS and Association of Chief Police Officers will roll out the scheme across the country by the end of the year.

The Attorney-General, Lord Goldsmith, said the pilots demonstrated the improvements early legal advice could bring to the criminal justice system.

'The CPS's legal expertise helps focus police investigations to build watertight prosecutions,' he said.

Rodney Warren, chairman of the Law Society's access to justice committee and director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said solicitors had long been concerned about police delivering the wrong charges or charging inappropriately.

'This can have huge consequences for the defendant.

The police are good at releasing details about charges and defendants face public vilification for being charged with the wrong offence,' he explained.

'Anything that helps the effectiveness of the prosecution must be welcomed.'

- Mr Warren has been appointed to the Criminal Justice Council, which advises the Home Office, Lord Chancellor's Department and Law Officers on changes to the criminal justice system.

Paula Rohan