The FDA’s National Officer for the Crown Prosecution Service, Duncan Woodhead, has written to the Attorney General, Victoria Prentis, regarding the current pay situation in CPS. As Attorney General, Prentis has ministerial responsibility for the service. 

The FDA is seeking a meeting with the minister as previous requests to meet with the department, and subsequently the Director of Public Prosecutions, were refused. 

In the letter, Woodhead stated that the already difficult job of public prosecutors was not made easier “by the austerity measures that had to be imposed from 2010 onwards and the changes in the digital and social media world which had vastly increased workloads.”  

Woodhead continued: 

“our members cannot continue to carry out their excellent work when they feel devalued, over-worked and under-resourced. The department’s pay offer falls behind the rest of the criminal justice system and that means we struggle to recruit the right staff at the right level to continue to do our work.”

The FDA has long called on the government to address these issues with pay and resourcing at the CPS for some time. Our 2019 Manifesto for Justice set out these issues in detail and provided practical resolutions to fix them. However, with inflation in excesses of 10% over the last 12 months and the accompanying cost-of-living-crisis, these issues are only become more urgent. 

You can find out more about the FDA’s work in the CPS here.