Our future
This year, we will work with our partners to embrace essential reforms and deliver independent, fair and effective public prosecutions in an increasingly complex world.
The Crown Prosecution Service has consistently risen to the seismic challenges facing the criminal justice system over the 40 years since our establishment. As we mark our 40th year, we continue to navigate a demanding environment, but we do so with optimism about the opportunities ahead to deliver the swift justice victims deserve.
The criminal justice system continues to operate under enormous and increasing pressure, shaping the environment in which we have written this business plan. Cases are becoming more complex, evidence volumes are growing exponentially, and our caseloads remain significantly higher than before the pandemic. Crime is also changing, with more crimes happening across national borders and around 90% of all crimes now having a digital element. These shifts are reshaping the demands placed on our frontline teams.
These challenges limit capacity across the system and mean that delays are common, with an unacceptable impact on victims, defendants and witnesses. We are determined to do better.
There are reasons for our optimism. Every day, people across the CPS, from our prosecutors and casework assistants to our victim liaison officers and headquarters teams, work tirelessly to deliver justice today and strengthen it for tomorrow.
The criminal justice system is undergoing a once-in-a-generation reform. Operating at the heart of the system, the CPS is in a unique position to enable these reforms to reduce delay, duplication and deliver better for victims and the public we serve.
Delivering justice is increasingly a collective effort. Across the criminal justice system, and internationally, partners are working together more closely, with a clearer understanding of how our roles rely on one another. This year we will publish strategies on how we are working with our partners to address international crime and serious economic and organised crime. This collaboration helps us tackle the biggest challenges at home and across the world.
We are seeking ways to ethically harness technology to deliver justice more effectively and efficiently. New technologies, like Artificial Intelligence, can make us more productive and agile. Alongside our plans to speed up our processes and create a more efficient service, there are huge opportunities for everyone in the criminal justice system.
Working smarter and delivering the change in this business plan will give our people the space to focus on what we know matters most to the public: building the best possible cases, giving victims, witnesses, and defendants the service they deserve, and working together to make our communities safer.
Against this backdrop of rising demand, transformational reform, and rapid technological change, our business plan sets out how we will strengthen capability, improve quality, reduce delays and earn the trust essential to delivering justice.