Data notes
Errors in the composite report's published ranges
HMCPSI published the Area Inspection Programme composite report of the baseline assessments of the 14 CPS Areas on 21 September 2023, publication number CP001:1310. It gives a national average score for added value and for grip in each of the three casework strands, and alongside each average it gives the highest and lowest Area score. It does not name the Areas and does not publish a figure for any individual Area.
The 14 individual baseline reports, published between 12 October 2021 and 10 November 2022, do publish per-Area figures. Each prints them twice, in the summary table near the front and again in the added value and grip scoring chapter. We have taken all fourteen from those reports and checked them against the ranges given in the composite.
Four of the six figures in the composite's two range tables match the Area reports. Two do not.
Table 3, added value
The composite gives the lowest magistrates' courts score as 54.4% and the lowest Crown Court score as 55.8%.
Neither is the lowest Area score for the strand it is printed against. Across the fourteen reports the lowest magistrates' courts added value score is 55.8%, recorded by CPS London South. The lowest Crown Court added value score is 54.4%, recorded by CPS London North. Both printed figures appear in the baseline reports, but against the other strand.
Table 4, grip
The composite gives the lowest Crown Court score as 65.8%.
The lowest Crown Court grip score across the fourteen reports is 61.9%, recorded by CPS London North. 65.8% is the second lowest, recorded by CPS West Midlands. London North's magistrates' courts grip score of 51.4% is carried correctly as the magistrates' lowest in the same table.
A separate discrepancy in Table 7
The composite gives the national figure for magistrates' courts post-charge compliance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors as 93.9%. The baseline column of the follow-up report published in January 2025 gives 93.8% for the same measure. Every other theme figure in the two documents agrees exactly. The published material does not establish which figure is correct.
The RASSO figures are not affected
All four RASSO figures in the composite's range tables match the Area reports exactly. The highest scores of 80.5% for added value and 84.7% for grip are both CPS Mersey-Cheshire. The lowest added value score of 53.9% is CPS Thames and Chiltern. The lowest grip score of 65.2% is CPS Yorkshire and Humberside.
Status of the report
We checked the composite's page on the HMCPSI website on 31 August 2026. The report is published there in a single version dated 21 September 2023. No corrected version and no correction notice has been issued. The figures set out above are as published at the date of this note.
Method
Every figure here is taken from a published HMCPSI report. The per-Area figures, the report each comes from and its publication number are held in our Area Inspection Programme dataset. Anyone wanting to repeat the check needs the fourteen baseline reports and the composite, all of which are on the HMCPSI website.
We intend to write to HMCPSI setting out the two range figures and the Table 7 discrepancy. This is a separate matter from the Freedom of Information request submitted to HMCPSI on 1 September 2026, which concerns a discontinued stalking inspection and not the composite report.
Sources
- HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, Area Inspection Programme, composite report of the baseline assessments of the 14 Crown Prosecution Service Areas in England and Wales, 21 September 2023, publication CP001:1310.
- HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, baseline assessments of all 14 CPS Areas, published October 2021 to November 2022.
- HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, Area Inspection Programme, follow-up of the 14 CPS Areas in England and Wales, January 2025, publication CP001:1320.
This page is part of the VNS CPS monitoring section.