CPS cancels graduate recruitment programme
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been forced to pull the plug on its recruitment programme this year because of a crack down on public spending.
The CPS has suspended the recruitment of legal trainees who would have been due to take up positions with the organisation in October 2010.
A spokesman said: “This move follows a review of current and future staffing levels and takes account of reductions in public spending. Legal trainees due to start work at the CPS this month will be unaffected and we’ll review further legal trainee recruitment next year.”
The CPS legal trainee scheme is currently advertised one year before the start date so applicants need to have completed either the Legal Practice Course, Bar Vocational Course or be in their final year of study to start the following October.
Every year the CPS gets around 2,000 applications for between 25 and 50 vacancies comprising a mixture of training contracts and pupillages. And up until now the CPS has benefited from the economic crisis in terms of application numbers, with more candidates considering the public sector as competition for pupillages and training contracts continues to mount.
But due to the recession and last October’s bank bailouts the Government has had to cut back on public sector jobs.
Readers' comments (4)
Shill | 2-Oct-2009 4:12 pm
No doubt New Labour wll put this down to a dropping workload caused by their success in ending crime in Britain once and for all.
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Anonymous | 11-Oct-2009 2:56 pm
In the scheme of things, 18 trainee solicitors is not the reason the CPS is massively over budget. It will not massively affect the budget to cut them out. It appears as though the CPS's financial problems have been around for a while, and this decision to cut another 18 jobs will not solve the situation.
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emma | 13-Oct-2009 2:52 pm
i love Shills response...... couldnt be more accurate.
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Anonymous | 13-Oct-2009 8:21 pm
Seems quite sensible.
There are far too many lawyers and as such there is little point in training more for jobs that do not exist.
However the problem is being compounded by the fact that firms are starting to step up outsourcing and improvements in technology will render many more solicitors redundant.
I am hoping that this recession will encourage students to think more carefully about career choices. Although I think the myths will persist for many more years yet.
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