Our operating environment and challenges
The CPS business plan sets out our transformation priorities for the year ahead, but in doing so it must also be responsive to the environment in which we work. Our operating context is both challenging and evolving – in the year ahead we will need to balance a desire to deliver important changes with pragmatism and flexibility to succeed.
We continue to strive to deliver on our CPS 2025 commitments. We still face a significant backlog of cases due to a number of factors, including the legacy of the pandemic and industrial action from the Bar. We also recognise that this has been a challenging year across government, with economic pressures affecting funding priorities. To respond to these challenges, our operational delivery plans need to ensure we are as effective as possible. Through continuous improvement, we are looking to streamline our processes and remove duplication, helping our people to focus on delivering a high-quality service.
The digitisation of information and processes continues to transform the criminal justice system, presenting major challenges and equally significant opportunities. We are capitalising on this by investing in digital tools, systems, and processes and ensuring that information can be shared securely and efficiently with our partners. We are committed to programmes that seek to digitise processes, including Digital Jury Bundles, improve the quality of case files, and improve efficiency and user experience across the criminal justice system.
We continue to face understandable public scrutiny on our prosecution of some of the most complex and appalling crimes, especially rape and serious sexual offences cases. We remain absolutely committed to improving rape and serious sexual offences prosecutions and the experiences of victims and witnesses. The scale of the challenge is reflected throughout this plan, with the inclusion of the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit Operating Model, the Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan, the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and Victims Transformation Programme. This work is truly system wide, stretching across the CPS, the police, and the courts – it is only together that we can ensure justice for victims.
We continuously review our processes and decisions understanding the impact our decision-making has on people’s lives. We are committed to ensuring that our decisions are fair and proportionate to all, taking account of protected characteristics in how we approach our casework. Our work on disproportionality within the system continues to be a significant priority and will bring together high-quality research with specific action plans to address key issues.
Meeting these challenges and delivering the ambitious programme of work outlined here will not be possible without the right people in place. We will be working tirelessly to reduce attrition of our specialist legal staff, as well as train and retain new appointees committed to bringing justice to victims. This will be supported by our ongoing approach to strategic resourcing, as well as enhancing our inclusive culture and prioritising wellbeing whilst acknowledging the financial pressures.
We know that we will be operating in a complex and evolving environment for years to come, but we remain confident that the improvements we are prioritising will not only address these challenges, but also safeguard our ability to deliver fair and independent prosecutions long term.