Forensic Scientists by

What are they?

348575_2 — 2025-06-02 09:38:43 UTC

The crown prosecution service (CPS) are responsible for deciding what cases are able to go to court, more specifically through the evidence that the police hope to prosecute the defendant with in court. They will do this by using the Full code test, which consists of the evidential test and the public interest test. The evidential test is where the CPS will decide if the evidence provided by the police is admissible ,applicable to the case and if it is reliable to the case. It will then go through the public interest test where they will analyse how important it is the the local society that the CPS approve of this case being taken to court. There is also the scenario where the CPS may also use the Threshold test. In this they will evaluate the impacts of either passing this case or denying it. Impacts will most likely include the public's feelings towards the CPS after the decision is made and if their will be any backlash.

Funding

summercoughlan1 — 2025-06-02 09:39:08 UTC

In the year of 2023 the CPS reportedly spent roughly £722 m which was divided into three categories, these being net recourse spending, Annually managed expenditure, and finally Capital. The majority of this spending was on Net Recourse Spending as a total of £713 m was spent on it, taking up almost 99% of the spending in 2023. This was all funded by the UK national government, but more specifically, the HM Treasury. Which is the UK's Economic and Finance Ministary.

Where are they based

348575_2 — 2025-06-02 09:39:14 UTC

The CPS is only based within England and Wales and has 42 locations across each country, which are then divided into 14 geographical regions. Strangely the CPS has 2 headquarters. One of these being in central London and the other being in York.

Aims

348575_2 — 2025-06-02 09:39:41 UTC

Strentghs

summercoughlan1 — 2025-06-02 09:40:07 UTC

The main strength of the CPS is that it was able to gain its independence from the police as of 1985 through the Prosecution of Offences Act (1985). Prior to the CPS the prosecution rate was near 98% which meant there was a great deal of miscarriages of justice due to heavily bias police taking the case themselves. In recent years the prosecution rate has dropped to consistently staying at 80% which is a very big advantage due to the reducing of miscarriages of justice in the UK.

Weaknesses

348575_2 — 2025-06-02 09:40:11 UTC

An easily noticeable weakness of the CPS is that it is extremely costly to the UK government as in 2023 alone over 700 million pounds was spent on the Crown Prosecution Service. Prior to this no extra expenses were paid for prosecution as it was worked into the polices wages. Another weakness of the CPS is that it can be held responsible for a backlog of cases, holding things up in the criminal justice system and causing multiple delays thanks to long processes and under staffing.