A shortage of prosecutors and experienced police officers has left investigators "struggling to cope" with obligations to disclose key evidence to defendants in criminal trials, according to a critical report from HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate. It says that despite
significant improvements, the CPS is still giving proper charging advice in less than half of cases. The report found that high priority areas such as homicide and terrorism were mostly dealt with by specialist units that understood the law and had sufficient resources. Meanwhile
difficulties occurred in "volume crown court" cases where there were "stretched police resources and a lack of understanding of criminal justice matters… undermined by under-resourced CPS staff struggling to cope with the sheer volume of work.” Cases where the CPS correctly
advised the police on reasonable lines of inquiry rose from 46% in 2017 to 74% now. Prosecutors also improved compliance with the requirement to review defence statements and provide comments and advice to police from 41% of cases to 60% over the same period.
