The CPS: Prosecuting crime for the public we serve
The Crown Prosecution Service exists to deliver justice for the public we serve - through the independent prosecution of crime across England and Wales.
We work with the police and other agencies to bring criminal cases to court. Police forces and others investigate cases, and we decide whether they should be prosecuted by examining whether there is a realistic prospect of conviction, and if it is in the public interest. In more serious or complex cases, we determine what the charge should be.
It is the CPS who prepares cases for court, provides or instructs counsel to present the cases and then afterwards, where possible, applies for the Proceeds of Crime to be returned to the public purse.
We were established in 1986 and are superintended by the Attorney General who is accountable to Parliament for our work, however our casework decisions are independent. We are led by Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions, and Peter Lewis, Chief Executive.
We are made up of 13 geographical areas in England and Wales, along with CPS Direct, Proceeds of Crime, three Central Casework Divisions and a corporate HQ.
Our prosecutors and paralegal officers are working at criminal courts across England and Wales, prosecuting 664,493 defendants a year - 563,626 defendants in magistrates' courts, and 100,867 defendants in the Crown Court.
We're securing 554,784 convictions a year - a conviction rate of 83.5%. Our conviction rate in magistrates' courts is 84.2%. That's up from 80.6% in 2004/05. And we have a conviction rate of 79.4% in the Crown Court, up from 75.1% in 2004/05.
Defendants are increasingly pleading guilty when they see the strength of the files we put before them, meaning our guilty plea rate is 75.9%, up from 62.3% in 2004/05. Our guilty plea rate for magistrates' court cases is 76.7% compared to 62.2% in 2004/05 and 71.9% for Crown Court cases compared to 64.1% in 2004/05.
In our offices are the teams preparing for 71,936 trials and 418,954 court sessions. We also make 314,835 pre-charge decisions a year, the majority of which are made by CPS Direct, our 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year, charging service to the police.
As an organisation we have made savings of £338.1 million over the last four years, but during this time we have improved our performance and so the service we offer to victims, witnesses and the public generally.
We are responsible for seeking confiscation orders and undertaking enforcement, and we work with our partners in asset recovery work. Confiscation work is carried out by 150 specialists in Proceeds of Crime, as well as staff in CPS Areas and Central Casework Divisions. We recovered £75.9 million last year from confiscation orders. That money goes back into public funds.
Our caseload
The breadth and depth of what we do is considerable. We prosecute everything from shoplifting to terrorism, wildlife crime and multi million pound fraud cases. We currently have 5895.19 full time equivalent members of staff - including 2254.78 prosecutors and 3287.58 paralegals and administrators supporting our casework - with experts in a wide range of specialisms.
Violence against women and girls
Tackling Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) is one of our key priorities and these cases comprise 16.1%, or a sixth, of our total caseload. We prosecute 107,104 VAWG defendants a year, an increase of 18.3% compared to 2013/14 and we're achieving a conviction rate of 73.5%. Each of our Areas also has a specialist Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) unit, specially trained to prosecute these devastating offences.
Hate Crime
We take allegations of Hate Crime very seriously, prosecuting 14,738 defendants a year and convicting in 82.9% of cases prosecuted.
Complex casework
Our specialist prosecutors in the Central Casework Divisions cover work which can range from election offences to medical manslaughter to people trafficking crimes. The Organised Crime division prosecutes 378 defendants a year, while the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism division handles 121 defendants per year.
Fraud is a major area for us, and we are conducting 15,311 prosecutions for fraud and forgery per year across the full spectrum, from benefit cheats to sophisticated boiler room scams. The Specialist Fraud division carries out 7596 prosecutions for fraud a year, achieving a conviction rate of 84.7%. This includes fraud prosecutions investigated by the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the NHS.
We carry out work not only in England and Wales, but across the globe. For example, in the International Division, CPS prosecutors have worked with counterparts in the Seychelles to bring 135 Somali pirates to justice in the last five years, contributing to over two years without a reported commercial hijacking off the Horn of Africa, and attacks hitting their lowest level since 2006. The CPS Extradition Unit handles 2286 cases each year and is involved with European Arrest Warrants; extraditing defendants back from all over the world and facilitating the extradition of those in the UK to countries abroad.
Victims
Our service to victims is hugely important to us. There is a specialist Victim Liaison Unit for every Area designed to support victims of crime through the process.
We also set up the Victims' Right to Review (VRR) scheme in June 2013, to give victims the opportunity to seek a review of a CPS decision not to bring charges or to terminate all proceedings. In 2014/15, we reviewed 1,674 cases under the VRR scheme and overturned 210 decisions. During the period we made 126,589 qualifying decisions, meaning that 0.17% of those decisions have been overturned - showing we get it right the first time in the vast majority of cases but are open to re-examining our work to see if a wrong decision may have been made.