At a glance
In 2010/11 the Crown Prosecution Service spent £614 million, less than £11.50 for every person in England and Wales.
The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for making charging decisions for the most serious types of offence. During the year we made 466,611 charging decisions.
We prosecuted nearly one million cases, with 116,898 of these in the Crown Court, and the remaining 840,983 in the magistrates' courts.
Of those we prosecuted, 93,106 defendants were convicted in the Crown Court and 727,491 in the magistrates' courts. In total 86% of cases prosecuted resulted in a conviction.
Key to successful prosecutions are victims and witnesses. In 2010/11, through the Witness Care Units that we jointly staff with the police, we supported 207,391 witnesses in attending court, achieving an attendance rate of 88%.
Additionally, we continue to focus our efforts on the most vulnerable victims of crime. In 2010/11 we prosecuted 95,257 Violence Against Women cases, [Note 1 *] an increase of 11% on the year before, whilst maintaining a successful outcome rate of 72%.
[Note 1 *] Of these, 82,187 were domestic violence, an increase also of 11% on 2009-10, also maintaining successful outcome rate at 72%; 4,208 were rape defendants, an increase of 10% on the previous year, maintaining successful outcome rate at 59%; 8,862 were sexual offences, an increase also of 10% from 2009-10, with a slight fall in successful outcomes from 76% to 74%. Successful outcomes in rape cases include cases initially charged as rape, but where a conviction was obtained for an alternative or lesser offence.
The public have the right to expect a high quality prosecution service from us. In 2009/10 we implemented a formal process of advocacy assessment, a first for the criminal justice system. In 2010/11, over 1,000 advocacy assessments were undertaken with over 96% meeting the required standard.
In 2010/11 we implemented 12 Core Quality Standards which define the level of service the CPS is committed to providing to the public in every key aspect of its work. We reviewed 205,686 commitments across more than 15,000 cases, with almost 80% fully meeting our high standard.
During 2010/11 we implemented a number of measures to deliver efficiency savings including:
- Continuing the Transforming Through Technology programme T3, which will move us from largely paper-based processes to a full digital way of working. We tested digital working in 6 early adopter locations, and will complete roll-out during 2011/12;
- Reducing staff numbers in Headquarters by 23%; and
- Moving to 13 Area structure from the previous model of 42.
The CPS is committed to delivering a high quality prosecution service that offers excellent value for money. During 2010/11 we did this with 7,745 [Note 2 *] staff, including 2,825 prosecutors, 4,491 caseworkers and administrators. 94% of our staff were engaged in frontline delivery.
[Note 2 *] Full-time equivalent figures. Data are provisional and subject to change. The figures quoted here were correct at 31 March 2011.
