The cost of reformDavid Calvert-Smith tells Sue Allen how the extra 30.4 million of funding given by the government to boost the Crown Prosecution Service will be used to deliver speedier justice

Two things are clear when speaking to the Director of Public Prosecutions, David Calvert-Smith QC: first, he is fully aware of the problems which have, and do, face the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS); the second is a conviction that they can be overcome, in time.His faith in the system may have received a boost last month when the service was granted an additional 30.4 million by the government, bringing its budget for 2001/2002 to 416 million.The money is intended to speed up the reform of the CPS which started, in earnest, in 1998 when Sir Iain Glidewell's report into the service was published.The CPS has to learn how to become an organisation which spends new money wisely, he says, rather than being one which is 'constantly scraping and saving and seeing where it can cut back without completely ruining the quality of the service'.Although some of the money will go towards recruiting around 100 or so new crown prosecutors, Mr Calvert-Smith says the process will not be rushed.

He says the dash to fill posts may be one of the factors which has contributed, in the past, to the view outside the service that those who can join private practice while those who cannot join the CPS.He contends that a culture of 'snobbery' among private practitioners against those in the employed sector, an initial rush to set up the service, under-resourcing and hurried recruitment during its last major staff increase in the 1990s, may all have contributed to the CPS's underperformance.He counters any criticism by saying that the CPS has a large number of 'highly skilled and conscientious lawyers' for whom the judiciary has 'nothing but praise on an individual level'.

Another subject which dogs the CPS is that of racism within the service.

Last year, senior prosecutor Maria Bamieh brought a successful employment tribunal action for race and sex discrimination, while its Croydon branch has been investigated by the Commission for Racial Equality.

Mr Calvert-Smith says new initiatives, which include the diversity unit and the National Black Crown Prosecution Association, have succeeded in putting the service back 'on the right track'.In the future, as a self-confessed developer of power, Mr Calvert-Smith is looking to move the service towards a more 'collegiate or chambers-like' way of working.

The 42 area chief crown prosecutors (CCPs) will in future, he says, have much more freedom to operate at a local level.One factor which will impact on the way they work is the issue of higher right of audience.

At present, the CPS has around 220 solicitors with higher rights; Mr Calvert-Smith says it will be 300 within a few months.

Although enthusiastic about the additional resource this will offer the service, he is 'anxious' that the new venture should have the maximum chance of success and that 'the people we are sending into court are going to do a good job'.

Individual area CCPs will then decide how best to deploy staff and that will depend on 'the quality of his in-house staff as against the quality of the local Bar and solicitor-advocates, and the economics of employing an in-house advocate as against the economics of contracting out'.However, Mr Calvert-Smith is also anxious that changes within the CPS should not contribute to the Bar - which he sees as a valuable resource - being starved of work.

He appears to have similar views on the value of private practice defence lawyers, and hopes the salaried defence service will be brought in cautiously by pilot schemes.While he maintains there could be advantages gained from the introduction of a single service - 'uniform standards, transferability, and the ability to put into place criminal legislation in a uniform way' - he adds that it could also lead to disadvantages.A lack of choice 'and the possible feeling within the mind of the defendant that this is an organ of the state which has an ultimate interest in seeing that as many criminals as possible are locked up', could cause problems, he speculates.His love of big-picture policy becomes clear when he is asked about government plans to remove the right to a jury trial in either-way offences.At first, he says it is not his place to express views - but he cannot resist adding that he would hate to see the jury tradition die.

'I think the involvement of the public in its own justice system is an absolute crucial and desirable feature of our system,' he adds.And, if he could have a wish-list for change coming out of Lord Justice Auld's upcoming review of the criminal justice system? Again, his suggestions go to key issues of concern to government and practitioners alike.The measures he would like to see include: a move towards uniform administration of the criminal courts; a rationalisation of the rules of evidence, 'so that, with appropriate safeguards, relevance and weight become the principal criteria for the admission of evidence'; a strengthening of the jury system by removing exemptions from service; and 'further strides' towards forcing parties in criminal trials to identify issues so that trials are shorter and juries have a clear idea of the issues they will have to decide.Speedier justice for all? It almost sounds like what the CPS was set up to achieve.