England: Secret Barrister tells DPP to go secret

Max Hill QC begins a five-year term as head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) today, succeeding Alison Saunders’s controversial tenure.

Writing in The Times, the Secret Barrister said Mr Hill could make “regular and surreptitious visits to magistrates’ and crown courts” to provide insight into “the daily pressures of volume prosecuting”.

The barrister added: “The impression one could gain from your predecessor was that her experience was chiefly of the more rarefied complex casework unit, special crime and counter terrorism division and the appeals and review unit, where time and resources allow for a far smoother investigative and prosecutorial experience.

“Turning up unannounced, to avoid the stage management that would otherwise precede you, to observe a knockabout list may bring to life some of the anecdotes and grumbles that fill your Twitter feed.”

He concluded on an optimistic note: “You have the highest respect of the profession, a dedicated, underappreciated staff and a bucketload of goodwill, which I hope you can draw on through the next five years.

“We may throw brickbats on social media, but do recognise we are on the same side and that it is in the interests of us all — professionals, defendants, victims, witnesses and the public — that you steer the CPS through this critical time for the criminal justice system.”