Comprehensive Spending Review: Law Officers' Departments

20 October 2010 Over the course of the Spending Review period, the Attorney General's Office and Law Officers' Departments will reduce overall spending by 24% in real terms. This includes a 24% reduction in the resource budget, and a 46% reduction in capital spending. The Departments' administration budget will be reduced by 33%.

£billion
2010-11 2011-122012-13 2013-14 2014-15
Resource DEL (1) 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6
Capital DEL 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Total DEL 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.6
(1) In this table, resource DEL excludes depreciation

This settlement covers the Attorney General's Office and the other Law Officers' Departments: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, the National Fraud Authority (NFA)and the Treasury Solicitors' Department (TSol). It funds departments to continue core work but at significantly reduced cost.

The three main departments (CPS, SFO and TSol) will all deliver resource savings of 25% in real terms by 2014/15. The department will make these reductions through the following actions:

  • The CPS accounts for 90% of the Law Officers' Departments budget. The CPS will radically reduce its cost base whilst maintaining and strengthening its capability to protect the public by robust and effective prosecutions;
  • The cost of CPS headquarters will reduce significantly with all functions exceeding benchmarks for corporate service delivery. There will be more devolution and management lines will be streamlined so local prosecutors are empowered to respond to local concerns and consistently deliver Core Quality Standards;
  • The LODs will also work with the Home Office and Ministry of Justice to deliver wider reforms such as more efficient use of the courts.

The costs of the NFA did not form part of the Law Officers' Departments' baseline funding. Funding for the NFA has been ring-fenced for the Spending Review period and this additional funding reduces the resource savings to be achieved to 24% by 2014-15.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve QC MP said:

"In order to play our part in cutting the deficit, the Law Officers' Departments will reduce budgets by 25% over the next four years. This is a daunting challenge, but it is also an opportunity to fundamentally rethink our processes and organisational arrangements - modernising and streamlining them to radically reduce the cost of bringing cases to court.

"I am confident from what I have seen of the excellent work within my departments that we can meet this challenge and I will be working with all interested parties to make it happen."

Notes for Editors
Enquiries relating specifically to the Law Officers' Departments should be directed to the AGO press office on 020 7271 2484/2465/2440
Media enquiries relating to the overall Spending Review should be directed to the Treasury Press office on 0207 270 5238