Senior Crown Prosecutor

Job summary

As a Senior Crown Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, you work on some of the most complex and challenging cases – from fraud and firearms offences to public order and corporate manslaughter.

Senior Crown Prosecutors are highly trained, experienced lawyers with excellent people skills and a passion for delivering justice. This role is largely office and/or court based. You’re responsible for reviewing evidence and making decisions on whether a case should be prosecuted – in line with our Code for Crown Prosecutors. You’re based in one of three units – magistrates’ court, Crown Court or rape and serious sexual offences – depending on your experience level.

You represent the Crown Prosecution Service on the frontline, collaborating closely with colleagues and other criminal justice agencies, including the police and judiciary. You play a vital role in maintaining public confidence in our work.

You benefit from a structured induction, four-month training plan and opportunities to shadow colleagues across the organisation. Once you gain further experience, you have options to progress into legal manager and crown advocate roles.

Find out what our senior crown prosecutors say about working at the Crown Prosecution Service by visiting cps.gov.uk/careers/prosecutor.

Job description

Your roles and responsibilities:

• You advise police and other investigators on casework and evidence requirements for a wide range of offences
• You review case files and charging decisions, providing legal advice and making the final decision, based on evidence, on whether prosecutions should proceed on cases for the magistrates’ and Crown Court
• You undertake advocacy in relation to serious and sensitive cases in the magistrates’ courts including Youth Courts, not guilty anticipated plea court lists, and multi-day trials
• You explain our decisions clearly to stakeholders including magistrates, counsel, victims, witnesses and the police
• You will work effectively as part of a multi-skilled team and maintain up-to-date knowledge of criminal offences

The prosecution teams:

Each Crown Prosecution Service area has a Crown Court, magistrates’ court, and a rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) team. As a senior crown prosecutor, you’re expected to be able to work in any of these teams although we do take into account your experience and, where possible, your personal preference before placing you in a team. Whichever team you join, you’re supported with a detailed training and induction plan to cover your first four months with the Crown Prosecution Service.

Working in our Crown Court team, you have a personal caseload of serious casework. You give charging advice to the police on cases to be heard in the Crown Court, working with our paralegal officers and with counsel to prepare cases for court.

In our magistrates’ court team, you are an advocate dealing with the full range of courts including trial courts. You have a personal caseload, giving pre-charge advice to the police on magistrates’ court cases and you prepare cases for court. You may work on a specialist team such as a domestic abuse or youth team.

In our RASSO team, you have a personal caseload comprising rape and serious sexual offences. You give charging and early indicative advice to the police on RASSO cases, working with our paralegal staff and counsel to prepare cases for court.

A more detailed job description document is attached to this advert.

Person specification

Essential:

• You must have a minimum of 12 months’ criminal law experience or demonstrable experience of managing sensitive and complex cases, clearly evidenced on your CV.
• You must demonstrate your commitment to public service, making a difference to the communities we serve and our Crown Prosecution Service values.
• You're focused on personal development and career progression.

Qualifications

•You must be a qualified Solicitor or Barrister in England and Wales
•You must hold, or be able to obtain, a current practising certificate for England and Wales prior to appointment
•You must be entitled to practise and meet all relevant professional regulatory requirements

Pre-employment checks
You will need to provide evidence of your professional qualification and current practising status as part of pre-employment checks
This will include verification of your practising certificate, relevant qualification route, confirmation of your good standing with your regulator

OR

CILEx: You must be a Fellow of CILEx, and in addition be a CILEx Advocate/Litigator holding all three advocacy certificates providing them with a ‘general qualification’ within the meaning of s71 (3) (c) Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. You must have a right of audience in relation to any class of proceedings in any part of the Senior Courts, or all proceedings in County Court or magistrates' courts to meet the requirements for a Crown Prosecutor specified by section 1 Prosecution of Offences Act 1985.
Our job adverts reflect the currently accepted qualifications for CPS roles. Our job adverts will be updated if these requirements change.

If you’re unsure about your eligibility, contact [email removed]

Please contact us by email as soon as possible if your practising certificate has any restrictions or special arrangements.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• You must have completed a Legal Practice Course, Solicitors Qualifying Exam or Bar Vocational Course/Bar Professional Training Course. You must have completed the relevant pupillage or training contract.
• You must be a qualified barrister or solicitor.
• You must have a minimum of 12 months’ criminal law experience or demonstrable experience of managing sensitive and complex cases, clearly evidenced within the CV section of your application.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £55,975, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £16,215 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Join the Crown Prosecution Service and find your purpose

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home, and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. Our hybrid working policy requires you to spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.

Delivering justice is a complex pursuit with work that is sometimes emotionally challenging, which is why we offer a range of benefits including:

• a Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
• 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working and a family-friendly approach to work
• a Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings
• a range of learning and development activities, an individual lea