Our reports

This report covers our inspection activity for the year 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.

This report is the first stage of looking at how the organisations we inspect have responded during the global COVID-19 pandemic. It looks at the CPS’s response during the period of lockdown from 16 March to 8 May, when movement was extremely limited.

Our annual business plan sets out the work we expect to do this year, along with some background on how we chose certain topics as priorities.

The CPS uses agents – lawyers not directly employed by the CPS – in just over a quarter of all cases presented in the magistrates’ courts. This inspection report reviews this practice and identifies recommendations, issues to address and examples of good practice. The inspection examined 90 magistrates’ court files dated from June to September 2019. The files covered nine CPS Areas: Cymru–Wales, London North, Merseyside and Cheshire, North West, South East, Thames and Chiltern, Wessex, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humberside.

This inspection report reviews how the CPS handles serious youth crime and identifies recommendations, issues to address and examples of good practice.

HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) have published a joint report on evidence led domestic abuse cases.

Inspection of the CPS’s handling of the disclosure of unused material in volume Crown Court cases.