The Bar Council has accused the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of deliberately acting against the public interest by trying to keep lucrative cases in-house, irrespective of whether they could be better handled externally.

The body has today (25 February) published a leaked CPS email which it argues shows how the CPS has adopted deliberate practices not to instruct the best advocate for a given case if it is in the best financial interests of the CPS to keep the work in-house.

The email highlights two particular faults in how the CPS instructs advocates according to the Bar: firstly that "messy troublesome cases with lots of complications" are to be sent to the independent Bar, especially if they are likely to be poorly remunerated; and, secondly, that cases which are weak or likely to be particularly profitable should be kept in-house.

The Bar Council argues this could result in misleading figures as to how cost effective in-house CPS advocates are.

The email was circulated to 43 recipients dealing with cases in North London Crown Courts between 15 January and 19 February this year.

Maura McGowan QC (pictured), chairman of the Bar Council, has written to Dominic Grieve QC, the Attorney-General, and Chris Grayling, the Lord Chancellor about the practice, while the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keir Starmer QC has promised a full investigation.

McGowan said: "The public interest demands that the correct advocate is instructed to prosecute a case based on skill and the complexity of the case. Today, we are able to show, with incontrovertible evidence that the CPS is deliberately acting against the public interest and the best people are not being used to prosecute serious crimes.

"The focus on cost and budget rather than quality of advocacy is a serious blow to the criminal justice system. We would never have known for certain that this practice was going on, without the evidence that we are publishing today."

In response. Starmer said in a statement: "The email in question should not have been sent. I have had assurances from all Chief Crown Prosecutors across England and Wales that no such or similar scheme has been operated elsewhere in the CPS.

"I am disappointed that the email was sent and I have assured the Attorney General, the Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association that I will ascertain how it came to be sent and revert to them on the matter."

John Cooper QC, a criminal and human rights barrister at 25 Bedford Row said: "This is something that the Bar has suspected for a long time. The CPS seem to have a culture based upon two things: enhancing their own standing as advocates and maintaining their balance sheet.

"The rank and file of the criminal bar expect the DPP to get a grip with CPS areas throughout the country and, in a more long term strategy, deal with a culture at the CPS which is damaging to the public just as it is to the Bar. The issue has been at the CPS for a long time, in that it has wanted to keep the best cases for themselves."

"It is appalling," said Michael Turner QC, of the Criminal Bar Association. "We don't know how widespread this culture might be but if the culture is not embedded in the CPS, why was that email forwarded to the Bar Council and not Keir Starmer?"

"Other people had to know about it; it is a demonstration of when cost comes at any price. Justice isn't being delivered for a whole variety of reasons."

Click here to view the email.