Criminal law solicitors have given a cautious welcome to the home secretary’s decision to transfer charging powers from the Crown Prosecution Service to the police.

Earlier this week, Theresa May outlined plans for what she called a ‘radical leap forward in policing’, aimed at reducing bureaucracy and giving police greater freedom.

Measures include piloting an increase in the number of charging decisions made by police rather than the CPS, to 80% of all charging decisions, and charging suspects by post.

If all the measures are implemented nationally, the Home Office estimates they will save 2.5 million police hours a year, the equivalent of 1,200 police officer posts.

May insisted the reforms were not about saving money, but about ‘delivering a better service to vulnerable people’.

A CPS spokesman said it would retain charging decisions in the most serious cases.

The CPS took over responsibility for charging many offences in 2006, while the police retained responsibility for around 67% of decisions.

Ian Kelcey, chair of the Law Society’s criminal law committee, said the ‘pendulum has swung almost completely back’.

He said police charging may be helpful for defence solicitors if it enables them to make representations on charge to the custody officer.

But he warned: ‘When the police had the power to make charging decisions it was felt that they were over-charging, or getting the charges wrong.

'The theory is that it will speed up the process between arrest and charge, but that remains to be seen.’

Mike Jones, chair of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, ­welcomed the move. He ­predicted it would mean more people will be charged, but it would give defence solicitors more input at the charge stage.

However Malcolm Duxbury, president of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association, predicted that charging by post could mean more ­people fail to attend court, ­ultimately leading to an increase in work for the police and courts, and more people held in custody.