The Crown Prosecution Service has saved £26m over the past five years by increasing its use of in-house advocates - but done little to improve those advocates’ quality, the CPS inspectorate reports today.

In a follow up to its 2009 report on the CPS’s advocacy strategy, Her Majesty's CPS Inspectorate found that the basic competence of in-house advocates appearing regularly in the Crown court has improved, particularly in their ability to cross-examine. But it says the gap in quality between the crown advocates and self-employed counsel has widened since 2009.

It found failures to challenge ‘clearly inadmissible and prejudicial evidence’, with some in-house advocates at times being less persuasive, over-reliant on case notes and lacking in confidence compared with the self-employed.

The report says there has been an overall decline in the performance of in-house advocates dealing with non-contested hearings, primarily plea and case management hearings. It put this down to the increase in the number of cases advocates are required to present, as well as late instructions and reduction in preparation time.

Performance of in-house advocates in relation the more technical elements of case preparation, such as making legal submissions and formal admissions, needs ‘significant improvement’ the report says. Performance had not been good in 2009, and since then has ‘declined markedly’.

Inadequacies in case progression prior to court need addressing as a ‘matter of urgency’. Shortcomings in case progression, it says, are exacerbated by a lack of continuity, with advocates rarely instructed to prosecute a case they have previously reviewed.

The report says allocation of work to both crown advocates and counsel, and allocation practices, including control of returned briefs, need to be improved.

In the magistrates’ courts, the report found a larger proportion of crown prosecutors to be competent than in 2009, although it says cross-examination techniques and the use of closing speeches still need to be addressed.

The continued expansion in the use of associate prosecutors, the report says, has led to savings without diminishing the quality of advocacy. However inadequate case progression disrupted cases and the business of the court.

Overall, the report found a commitment to deliver quality advocacy by the director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer QC and senior managers, but says that aim has not been reflected at local level, where area managers have continued to focus on savings.

The report advised the CPS to ‘take stock’ and review its advocacy strategy in light of the many changes that have occurred since it was first implemented.

Starmer said: ‘The report rightly highlights our commitment to quality advocacy and a number of areas where the CPS has improved this quality.

‘Our increased use of in-house advocates has resulted in significant savings since 2006 and at the same time the overall quality of advocacy has remained high.

‘The report has identified several areas that need further improvement and we will rise to the challenges set out and continue to improve the quality of both in-house and external advocacy in the criminal courts,’ he said.