Detectives are left on hold for 10 hours ... waiting for CPS lawyers

POLICE have been left hanging on the phone for more than ten hours at a time waiting to speak to a lawyer to have a suspect charged.

Detectives are being tied up for entire shifts trying to get through to an on-call Crown Prosecution Service solicitor at a time when officers are needed to fight crime.

An estimated 42,000 police man hours are being wasted each year – the equivalent of £2.4 million of taxpayers’ money in officers’ salaries.

Police must call the CPS Direct Line to get a decision on whether a suspect in the cells should be charged.

They cannot leave their desks while waiting in case they have to discuss case files with the lawyer. Calls are meant to be answered within an hour.

The waste of time and money has been uncovered in a report presented to the Chief Constables’ Council by Deputy Chief Constable Sara Glen of Hampshire Police, which states: ‘Since May 2019, the performance position with the call times worsened.

‘It became common to see maximum queue times of more than five hours. Within the first two weeks of July, there were recorded maximum queue times of 10.5 hours and 8.5 hours on two separate days.’ She added that feedback from forces revealed that this had caused ‘significant impact… as they were not able to deploy staff to other incidents as they were waiting on the phones’.

And she added: ‘ There was also the financial impact of paying officers overtime, many of whom go into rest days as they are waiting overnight for the call to be answered.’

With about 2,000 calls a week being made to the CPS Direct Line and average wait times ranging from three minutes to one hour and ten minutes over the summer, analysis by The Mail on Sunday suggests that police officers were left on hold for 42,000 hours last year – time worth £2.4 million.

Officers have now been told to ring CPS Direct in emergencies only. Average wait times are now said to be between three and 16 minutes.

Seven police forces are testing a new system in which charging decisions are made via secure emails.

A CPS spokesman said: ‘The new charging model is currently being tested and an evaluation will take place later in the year.’