Written By Jack J Collins, Editor, AllAboutLaw.co.uk

Reform debate rages on

Written By Jack J Collins, Editor, AllAboutLaw.co.uk

It has become clear that some of the UK’s most senior legal figures are at loggerheads over how best to reform the Crown Prosecution Service.

The latest two figures to wade in on the debate are Victoria Atkins, Tory MP for Louth and Horncastle, and Lib Dem peer Lord Macdonald. Atkins is a non-practicing barrister, whilst Macdonald was director of public prosecutions for five years from 2003.

Atkins had suggested that it was worth looking at making the CPS more localised, during a discussion on ‘The CPS – is the system working?’ hosted by social and economic thinktank Politeia.

She stated that this was a time for reform and change, and that bold moves which reformed the service for the better would be looked back on in years to come with praise, mooting the idea that the CPS should be responsible to setting, reviewing and analysing national prosecuting standards.

“I wonder if we could not set up a more localised system where, if you’re in Lincolnshire, you know you’re being prosecuted by solicitors or barristers in your local community who understand the pressures of your area in a way which Rose Walk [CPS’s London base] simply can’t,” she stated.

Whilst he stated that he was not opposed to localisation, Lord Macdonald told the discussion that Atkins’ model was fundamentally flawed, because it could lead to huge inconsistencies in severity of crime and punishment around the country.

Macdonald concluded by saying that it was a dangerous game to “talk in terms of devolving powers to small, independent organisations dotted around the country who have little contact with each other and may have a commercial interest in decisions they take”.

The CPS has been in operation since 1986, and has been criticised this week for a lack of engagement with defence practitioners who were trying to reduce delays in courts of law.

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