Activity-based costing: public bodies are finding more and more applications for ABC data. Lana Liu explains a CIMA-sponsored study of its use in the Crown Prosecution Service.

Financial Management (Chartered Institude of Management Accountants), March, 2005 by Liu, Lana

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is a government agency that provides legal justice services relating to criminal offences committed in England and Wales. On its inception in 1986 it employed a large number of permanent stall including lawyers. But the number of criminal cases declined significantly over the years and the CPS found it hard to justify steady increases in its running costs, more than 85 per cent of which were taken up by salaries.

In 1999 a reorganisation increased the number of CPS area offices from 14 to 42, largely aligning them with regional police ...