Andrew Baxter: Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor

Andrew qualified as a solicitor in 1991, working in private practice as a criminal defence advocate before joining CPS Norfolk in 1993.

In 2001 he completed an LLM degree by research in employment law. In 2003 he was granted Higher Rights of Advocacy, and his casework focussed on larger scale cases with an emphasis on drugs and confiscation issues.

In 2004 he was made District Crown Prosecutor for West Norfolk, and was appointed Chief Crown Prosecutor for Norfolk in 2009.

Following the national re-structure in April 2011, Andrew is now Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for the Eastern Area, which comprises Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

During the period 2001-2008 Andrew was a Director of the Norwich and District Citizens Advice Bureau, chairing the Board of Trustees during that time and focussing on HR issues including pro-bono representation of clients in the Employment Tribunals. He is also a lay-member of the Institute of Food Research ethics committee.

He has lead responsibility for Violence Against Women within the East of England Area, striving to improve the Area performance in its handling of these most important cases and ensuring good practice is shared across the Eastern region and that more perpetrators are brought to justice.

Between 2010-2011 Andrew chaired the Norfolk Criminal Justice Board which worked with all Criminal Justice Agency Chief Officer partners and which was responsible for the delivery of Criminal Justice System services across the county of Norfolk. He is now a member of the joint Norfolk and Suffolk Criminal Justice Board, chairs the Board's performance group, and also sits as a member of the Cambridgeshire Criminal Justice Board.