A cut in the number of Crown Prosecution Service lawyers of almost 25%, coupled with rising administrative errors in the courts, has triggered fears that budget reductions are causing a significant breakdown in the criminal justice system.
And research suggests that the cutbacks, which have resulted in substantial redundancies and court closures, may not be saving taxpayers any money at all.
Freedom of information requests carried out by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for the Observer reveal that in the past three years the CPS in England and Wales has lost 202, or 23%, of its barristers, and 518, or 22%, of its solicitors. The number of witness care officers and managers, the officials charged with ensuring key witnesses attend court, has dropped by 43% since 2010, from 230 to 131. The decline in headcount is largely a result of the CPS’s need to reduce its budget by 27% in real terms by 2014-2015.
Concerns about the CPS cuts come as crown courts in England and Wales register a rise in the number of trials failing because of basic administrative errors. Cases overrunning, judges being unavailable and failures with equipment or accommodation are leading to costly delays.
The number of crown court cases labelled “ineffective” due to administrative problems rose by a third between 2009 and 2012, according to the bureau’s analysis of government statistics. Last year, 1,210 crown court trials collapsed because of problems with court administration. In 2009, before the budget cuts took hold, administration issues were blamed for 912 cases being dropped.
While fewer staff are needed in the CPS because the number of trials dealt with by the organisation has fallen by 13% since 2010, experts are concerned the system is being stretched. “The supposed budget cuts have resulted in no savings at all for the criminal justice system,” said Michael Turner QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association. “At the end of the day if weaknesses are leading to breakdowns and retrials, the taxpayer ends up spending more money in the long run.”
Experts have highlighted the increasing number of trials that collapse because the CPS offers no evidence. Last year 45 murder trials failed because the CPS provided insufficient or no evidence after a not guilty plea was entered. This was the equivalent to one in 20 murder cases, a rise of 50% from 2010. The rate at which the CPS offers “no evidence” has also risen for burglary, robbery, fraud and forgery, and criminal damage trials.
A CPS spokesman said: “The most common reasons for the need to offer no evidence is that new evidence becomes available which undermines our case, or because victims or witnesses withdraw their support for the case. We can and do take steps to overcome these problems but it would be misleading to portray such issues as CPS inefficiency.”
In the first quarter of 2013, the number of trials declared ineffective because the prosecution failed to disclose materials to the defence doubled, compared with the same quarter of 2012.
Last month Judge Jeremy Gold QC criticised the CPS after it failed to disclose “basic paperwork” on the first day of a rape trial.
Gold adjourned the trial giving the CPS more time to prepare but threatened to find the defendant not guilty if the CPS did not present the correct documents in the future. “There has been a lamentable failure by the CPS to prepare the case for trial,” Gold declared.
Last year the CPS was forced to pay compensation for wasted costs in nearly 400 criminal trials. A CPS spokesman denied suggestions it was inefficient and said whenever a costs order is made against it, it seeks to identify whether there were any failings that could have been avoided.
“We have had to make savings of 27% to our budget and naturally staff numbers have reduced, but we are protecting frontline teams and improving performance,” the spokesman added. “Overall conviction rates have remained consistent at 85% or above for the past eight years and we have clearly demonstrated that we are able to successfully prosecute the most serious and complex offences; the conviction rate for violence against women and girls, including rape, hit a record high in 2012-13.”
Labour said the bureau’s findings were a cause for concern. “Because of the government’s policies, guilty criminals could be getting away scot free,” said the shadow justice secretary, Sadiq Khan.
“It’s outrageous that our rule of law is being put at risk because prosecutors don’t have the resources to pursue cases and our courts are so badly stretched. Ministers must act now before public confidence in our justice system is further eroded.”
In an attempt to cut costs, the Ministry of Justice has embarked on a round of court closures. Ministry responses to freedom of information requests revealed that, to date, 136 courts have been closed but only 35 have been sold, leaving 101 court buildings empty.
According to the ministry, more than £21m has been saved by closing the courts and £14.5m has so far been made from the sale of the buildings.
But the income has been dwarfed by the amount the ministry has paid out in redundancies. Figures show the ministry spent £230m on staff redundancies between 2011 and 2013, £90m more than it had ringfenced for the programme. The ministry has put aside another £40m for further redundancies between now and next year. Concerns about the effective administration of the criminal justice system were raised earlier this month when it was claimed that private security companies G4s and Serco were overcharging on electronic tagging contracts. But they blamed the court and prison services for failing to pass on key information, raising concerns that the system was in bureaucratic meltdown.