"This new text collates the CPS charging standards and policy documents for the first time in a standalone form. The charging standards cover theft, driving offences, drug offences, public order offences, public justice offences, and offences against the person. Guidance and policy documents comprise rape, domestic violence, and race and religious crimes. In addition, this text contains the Code for Crown Prosecutors." "The Charging Standards are fully cross-referenced to Blackstone's Criminal Practice 2005, Archbold 2005, and Wilkinson's Road Traffic Offences. The book also provides a comprehensive index, table of cases and table of statutes, ensuring the standards are easy to navigate."--BOOK JACKET.

Following on from a NAO report (HCP 798, session 2005-06, ISBN 0102936978) published in February 2006, the Committee's report concludes that the handling of cases in magistrates' courts has in recent years become complex and protracted to the extent that it no longer amounts to summary justice. 55 per cent of the £173 million cost of delay in the magistrates' courts is attributable to the defence, but the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) account for another 14 per cent (£24 million) each. The CPS needs to review its organisational structure, revise its system for preparing for magistrates' court cases by adopting current best practice, and address the cultural resistance within the organisation to more modern working practices.