Crown Prosecution Service offices serving each police force in the UK are to be scrapped and replaced by large regional organisations, the Government has announced.
Four offices which served the police forces in the West Midlands will be closed in the plans and one regional office will be created to serve West Midlands Police, West Mercia Police, Warwickshire Police and Staffordshire Police.
The latest Government announcement follows a decision to close magistrates courts across the West Midlands, including in Sutton Coldfield, Halesowen, West Bromwich, and Tamworth.
And it follows a cut in funding for West Midlands Police, from £277.3 million in 2010-11 to £224.9 million in 2011-12 and £211.5 million in 2012-13.
At the moment, the CPS is divided into 42 official areas, corresponding to the 42 police forces in England and Wales, each led by their own Chief Crown Prosecutor.
These are to be replaced by 13 large areas, each covering a number of forces.
The change was criticised by MP Gisela Stuart (Lab Edgbaston) who said: “The Government talks about local policing and making the criminal justice system more responsive to local needs, but it seems to be going in the opposite direction.
“It comes on top of the closure of magistrates courts and my fear is that it will lead to more delays or more cases which simply never make it to court.”
Cabinet Minister Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, said there would now be only 13 Chief Crown Prosecutors for the whole of England and Wales, but they would have a series of deputies working under them.
In a statement to the House of Commons he said: “It establishes a solid foundation for the future and provides the CPS with greater capacity, capability and flexibility to respond to the challenges that lie ahead.”
Chris Sims, the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, has written to the Home Office warning that inner city police forces have suffered bigger funding cuts than those in the shires - even though they face the greatest challenges.
In a letter to Home Office officials he said: “It is my strong view that the outcome of the changes has disproportionately disadvantaged metropolitan areas in which the greatest levels of threat and risk exist.”
Latest figures from the Home Office show that the number of police in the West Midlands has already fallen.
The number of officers employed by West Midlands Police fell by 1.6 per cent between March 2010 and September 2010 – a loss of 140 police officers.