Show me the money.

Governments of both colours have a habit of coming up with good and necessary projects, but then failing to fund them properly - the Child Support Agency being a classic case in point. But another example is the Crown Prosecution Service. It is obviously right that the body which collects evidence (the police) ought not to be the body which also decides whether that evidence is sufficient to justify a charge being laid. It is clearly better that that should be the job of an independent organisation - hence the formulation of the CPS. But then you have to make sure that it has the funds to do what it is set up to do. And when you don't, you get the situation we have today, where people are being held on remand - sometimes in custody - for unconscionably long periods, because the resources are simply not there to deal with their cases expeditiously. To revert to the police making the decision would be a retrograde step, but at least it would speed things up.