Whitehall opposes prosecution service sell-off: Civil servants argue that contracting out advocacy would be expensive and wasteful. Patricia Wynn Davies reports

AN inter-departmental steering group on the future of the Crown Prosecution Service has strongly urged the Government to drop the option of privatisation.

Peter Mandelson, the MP for Hartlepool and a parliamentary adviser to the First Division Association of Civil Servants, has written to Sir Nicholas Lyell QC, the Attorney General, demanding publication of an interim report by the group firmly opposed to privatisation of the service.

Sir Nicholas announced last December that the service would be considered for executive agency status, and revealed in April that full-scale privatisation was also being examined.

Such a step would amount to a U-turn of major reforms completed only 10 years ago by putting prosecution work back into the hands of high street solicitors.

Mr Mandelson said in his letter: 'I gather that the only voice heard in favour of privatisation comes from those who believe it would 'bring a welcome boost to those high street firms whose markets have been threatened by the recession and by the loss of valuable conveyancing work,' to quote the Centre for Policy Studies.'

Barbara Mills QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the service, has remained publicly agnostic on the issue.

But the service was plunged into fresh controversy last week over the conduct of the prosecution of Colin Stagg for the murder of Rachel Nickell.

Mr Mandelson said in the letter: 'There is every reason to believe that if advocacy services were contracted out to private sector solicitors this would not only be an administrative nightmare but the taxpayer would be paying through the nose for a more expensive and wasteful system.

'I assume you will also accept that the independence of the CPS from profit or solicitor and client pressures, and its accountability through you to Parliament, are fundamental to its existence and the Public Prosecutor's office.'

Mr Mandelson said the threat of privatisation hanging over the service was a distraction from sensible debate about its future operation. 'I would ask you to make public the conclusions of the inter- departmental group without delay so as to clear the air and make possible practical debate about the future.'