Police face longer wait to hear if they can charge suspects
POLICE officers trying to contact prosecutors for a decision on whether to charge criminal suspects are being made to wait more than half an hour.
On average police officers were left waiting for 37 minutes last month for lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service to make a decision on whether or not they could charge suspects.
In June 20,000 calls were made to the CPS Direct, the national charging service used by the police.
The figures released under the Freedom of Information Act excluded calls that were abandoned after less than three minutes.
It showed 90 per cent of calls were eventually answered but 15 per cent of those were “ineffective calls” as charging decisions were not given.
In May the average waiting time was 33 minutes, compared with waiting times in April last year of only four minutes. The figures were released to the CPS after a request by blogger Richard Taylor.
He told the Police Oracle: “It is a pity they didn’t tell me how long the biggest wait was. If the average time is 37 minutes, some will be longer.”
A spokesman for the CPS said: “We do all we can to ensure we have the necessary resources available to meet that demand no matter what time of day.
“We regularly monitor the performance and timeliness of our responses to the police and are working with them to ensure we all make the maximum use of technology and resources available to us.”
The CPS is responsible for deciding what charges are to be brought in more serious or complex cases.
To receive a charging decision, Police officers and other investigators call a single national number and are connected to the next available duty prosecutor. In some cases, officers can submit and receive charging decisions electronically.
A team of 200 prosecutors provide advice for CPS Direct, some from their own homes who primarily work at evenings, night-time and weekends.
‘It’s a pity they didn’t tell me how long the biggest wait was. If the average is 37 minutes, some will be longer’