The recent collapse of the Hillsborough trial, attributed in part to failures in preparation by the CPS, and disturbing reports about the CPS' policies in relation to cases of rape and sexual assault, prompt the question: Does the CPS have enough resources to do its job properly ? And if it does not, is justice properly functioning in this country ? Cuts in legal aid, which can only be described as savage, have already denied access to justice for millions. There was a reason for the Attlee government's introduction of legal aid. Access to justice is an integral part of citizenship. It is an essential element of the realisation of the beliefs in fairness and solidarity which underpin the social contract. In the 1760s, long before the advent of universal suffrage, the execution of Lord Ferrers for murder was held to confirm the belief of many that the British system of justice, although often brutal in its consequences (the number of executions increased markedly during the 18th century) was fundamentally fair. (However, there was much evidence to the contrary: see Douglas Hay, E. P. Thompson et al, 'Albion's Fatal Tree').
We are now in danger of breaking the link between our system of justice and public belief that this system is just.