Victims and Courts Act removes restrictions blocking CILEX Lawyers from Crown Prosecutor roles

30 April 2026

The Victims and Court Act, which today received Royal Assent, removes restrictions blocking CILEX Lawyers from becoming Crown Prosecutors.

The new legislation, which follows a long campaign by CILEX (The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives), opens up senior roles in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to a wider and more diverse range of talent, increasing the pool of lawyers available to deploy on reducing court backlogs.

Currently Crown Prosecutors must hold a general qualification granting a right of audience in relation to any class of proceedings in any of the senior courts or all proceedings in county or magistrates’ courts.

Unlike solicitors, Chartered Legal Executives do not automatically hold this due to their specialised route to qualification. Despite CILEX criminal lawyers being fully trained in their field, to progress in the CPS they must gain an additional qualification, granting them authorisation to practice in three separate areas of law, two of which they do not practice in.

This has meant most CILEX Lawyers hit a ceiling when reaching Associated Prosecutor level, unnecessarily limiting the ranks of those suitable for the Crown Prosecutor role.

Clause 9 of the Act removes the need for the general qualification and means that the 111 CILEX members currently working as Associate Prosecutors now have the opportunity to progress further in their careers, while other CILEX criminal lawyers have the option to join the CPS in Crown Prosecutor roles for the first time.

The CPS will no longer need to fund the cross qualification of CILEX employees through the public purse and, given the diverse backgrounds of the CILEX membership, the change will significantly advance equality and diversity in the CPS.

This is the latest in series of legislative and policy changes that have removed barriers and secured equality of opportunity for CILEX members in recent years. In 2023, amendments to the Judicial Appointments Order 2008 opened up more senior judicial roles to CILEX Lawyers, while the passing of the Powers of Attorney Act saw changes permitting CILEX Lawyers to certify copies of Powers of Attorney.

CILEX President Sara Fowler says: “This change will widen the pool of specialist criminal lawyers eligible for senior CPS roles, helping to alleviate shortages and tackle the massive backlogs we are facing in the criminal courts.

“Removal of the general qualification requirement is recognition of the key role CILEX members play in our justice system and their specialist skills and expertise. It will open up career opportunities for CILEX members, encourage recruitment and retention and enable the CPS to attract more lawyers from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the legal profession.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Louise Eckersley, Black Letter Communications on 0203 567 1208 or email at [email protected]

Kerry Jack, Black Letter Communications on 07525 756 599 or email at [email protected]

Notes to editors:

What is a general qualification?

A general qualification is any qualification which grants the holder a right of audience in relation to any class of proceedings in any of the senior courts (the Crown Court, the Court of Appeal, and the High Court), or all proceedings in county courts or magistrates’ courts.

As a result, CILEX members wishing to gain a general qualification are required to:

Gain their rights of audience in three separate areas of law (criminal law, family law, and civil law), two of which they are likely never to use; or/li>
Gain advocacy certificates in each of those separate areas; or
Gain higher rights of audience enabling them to also appear in the senior courts.

Given that CILEX members are required to complete two years’ experience in each area of the law in order to gain their advocacy rights, any CILEX member seeking to become a Crown Prosecutor via the latter route would require a minimum six years of experience to qualify, with all the associated costs that entails.

CILEX

CILEX (The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives) is one of the three main professional bodies covering the legal profession in England and Wales. The approximately 18,000-strong membership is made up of CILEX Lawyers, Chartered Legal Executives, paralegals and other legal professionals.

CILEX pioneered the non-university route into law and recently launched the CILEX Professional Qualification (CPQ), a new approach to on-the-job training that marries legal knowledge with the practical skills, behaviours and commercial awareness needed by lawyers in the 2020s.

The CPQ is a progressive qualification framework that creates a workforce of specialist legal professionals, providing a career ladder from Paralegal through to Advanced Paralegal and ultimately full qualification as a CILEX Lawyer. CILEX Lawyers can become partners in law firms, coroners, judges or advocates in open court.

CILEX members come from more diverse backgrounds than other parts of the legal profession:

76% of its lawyers are women
16% are from ethnic minority backgrounds
- 8% are Asian or Asian British
- 5% are Black or Black British
- 3% are from a mixed ethnic background
77% attended state schools
63% come from families where neither parent attended university
Only 3% of its members have a parent who is a lawyer.

CILEX members are regulated through an independent body, CILEx Regulation. It is the only regulator covering paralegals.