Catherine McKinnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine McKinnell on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2015 to Question 11888, for what reason the (a) prosecution cost per defendant and (b) overall spend per completed case has increased since 2010-11.

Jeremy Wright

The increase in (a) average prosecution cost per defendant and (b) overall spend per completed case reflects the significant change in the caseload mix since 2010-11.

For example, the prosecution of low level traffic offences has been transferred to the police since 2010-11, leading to a fall of 61.1% in motoring cases. A rising proportion of the CPS workload is now geared towards larger and more complex cases, including non-recent sexual abuse cases.

The average costs are also unadjusted for inflation. If average costs for each prior year were all restated in terms of 2014-15 prices, then they would all be increased accordingly.