Mills offers olive branch to the CPS trade union

Dame Barbara Mills QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, has called for a truce with the lawyer's union at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which she accuses of undermining the service.

Speaking to The Lawyer in her first major interview since the General Election, Mills urges the CPS section of the Association of First Division Civil Servants to put a stop to its "antagonistic" approach to senior management.

"This kind of outspoken criticism does the service down in the eyes of the public," she says. "I would like to see a period with the union and ourselves working together."

Also in the wide-ranging interview (see page 7), Mills defends her leadership of the CPS and says resignation was not an issue when Labour swept into power with an agenda of radically reforming the service.

She expresses confidence that the independent review of the service being undertaken by the retired Lord Justice of Appeal, Sir Iain Glidewell, will vindicate the CPS. But Mills adds that she will definitely stand down from the post when her contract expires in April 2000.