Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of the reduction in the number of CPS staff on the number of criminal charges brought in England and Wales between 2010 and 2017.

Whilst the Crown Prosecution Service has seen a reduction of staff, this does not necessarily correlate to the decreasing caseload. During the same period, the volume of police charged cases and referrals for pre-charge decisions has declined. Importantly, the Crown Prosecution Service has maintained its conviction rate of around 84% throughout this time.