Labour backs CILEX’s call to remove restrictions on CPS roles

The Labour Party has called for the role of associate prosecutors (APs) to be expanded to help reduce the massive backlog in criminal cases awaiting hearings.

Speaking to The Guardian in August, Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry said APs were “not being used to the maximum extent possible” in Crown Courts due to an “unnecessary and outdated legal restriction”.

APs are specially trained lay employees of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), with level 1 APs permitted by law to conduct uncontested cases in the magistrates’ courts, and level 2 APs able to conduct specified contested hearings, up to and including trials of summary-only non-imprisonable offences.

APs have been members of and regulated by CILEX since 2009 – soon after their extended role was first established – and in 2011 it was given the power to grant them litigation and advocacy rights. Their training and assessment are delivered by the CPS and monitored by CILEx Regulation.

CILEX has been lobbying for this change for some time and former Lord Chancellors Dominic Raab and his predecessor, Sir Robert Buckland, have previously committed to working with CILEX to open up Crown prosecutor roles to APs.

Labour said APs had years of experience and were already at an advanced stage in their careers but were forced to pursue costly and time-consuming retraining as generalist lawyers in order to become Crown prosecutors.

Lifting restrictions on the 127 APs employed by the CPS would represent an increase of those able to handle the workload currently reserved for Crown prosecutors by up to two-thirds, Labour said.

CILEX Chair Professor Chris Bones welcomed Labour’s announcement. He said: “The current restrictions on the career progression of many associate prosecutors limit the contribution they can make to clearing the court case backlog and stifles the pipeline of talent that is required by the CPS to meet the demands of the criminal justice system over the long term.

“Importantly, this change would speed up access to justice for those who are currently stuck in the courts' system for years.”