The Bar Council accused the Crown Prosecution Service of ‘Alice in Wonderland accounting’ this week over the CPS’s claim to have saved millions using its own lawyers rather than external advocates.

In its 2007/08 annual report, the CPS said it had saved £17.1m by using its own in-house advocates, rather than hiring private practice barristers.

But a report by consultancy firm Europe Economics commissioned by the Bar Council said the CPS figures are ‘profoundly flawed’ and ‘should not be relied on’. It claimed the CPS had failed to take into account the overhead costs of employing in-house lawyers.

Bar Council chairman Desmond Browne said: ‘To claim that taking advocacy in-house will save money without taking account of the full costs smacks of Alice in Wonderland accounting.’

Keir Starmer (pictured), director of public prosecutions and head of the CPS, stood by the accuracy of the CPS figures, saying they were robust, while most of the bar’s conclusions were based on ‘incorrect assumption’.

‘I am disappointed that the Bar Council has chosen to make such a divisive move at the very time [when] we need constructive dialogue about the future.’

Last week Starmer announced a programme to improve standards within the CPS, laying down minimum quality levels and setting targets to cover every aspect of its work. He said criminal justice required a radical rethink to change from being a ‘system’ to a ‘service’.

Earlier this month the CPS inspectorate found a third of prosecution advocates, both in-house and external, were ‘lacklustre’ or poor (see [2009] Gazette, 16 July, 1).