But the CPS is failing under all three elements of its name. Failing to do its duty under the Crown, failing to serve all of society – particularly the Jewish community – and failing to prosecute offenders, particularly when those offenders are alleged to have committed antisemitic offences.
Offences targeting Jews have risen by an unconscionable amount in the past two years. There were no fewer than 1,521 antisemitic offences recorded in the first half of 2025 alone.
But how many successful convictions were there for antisemitic hate crime in 2025? How many charges brought? We do not know – because the CPS fails to publish a breakdown of its hate-crime prosecution statistics by communities. We do know, however, there were myriad failures.
And let me let you into a secret – antisemitic offences are not the only area in which the CPS is failing. While the current government is upsetting a wide cohort of the electorate (including its own MPs) by stopping some trials by jury because of the court backlog, the truth is that the backlog has nothing to do with juries. The backlog of court cases is actually caused in large part by the CPS. It is they, together with the police, who can take years to get round to deciding whether to prosecute a given criminal offence.
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But where things have gone really wrong, like so many other organs of the British state, is with the CPS’s handling of offences against the Jewish community. Just like universities, which have been captured by a hateful mob; just like the police who have allowed hate marches every Saturday in central London, and banned Jewish football fans in Birmingham; just like the NHS, which has failed to deal effectively with allegations of antisemitism in its ranks. Just like the BBC, which has allowed itself to project hostility on its airwaves, and just like the schools, which have been poisoning the minds of its young, and even recently banning a Jewish Labour MP, sadly the CPS is not immune.
A simple, inexpensive remedy for the CPS would be the creation of a dedicated Antisemitism Unit within its current structure. After all it currently has a dedicated Diversity, Equality and Inclusion team. Each geographical area of the CPS also currently allocates a prosecutor for Wildlife, Rural and Heritage Crime – so why not for the ever-increasing litany of anti-Jewish hatred offences?
Allowing repeated incitement to go largely unchecked for two years inevitably leads to violence. It has done and it will do again. We saw this point proved in the Manchester synagogue attack. Other Western countries are not immune from this, as we have seen with the Bondi Beach horror in Australia. But outside the JW3 Centre in north London in October 2023 why did prosecutors refuse to treat Jews who were allegedly subjected to Nazi salutes, intimidation and harassment as victims of hate crime until the CPS was threatened with legal action by the victims? In that case the CPS only agreed to review their decision not to prosecute when lawyers for two of the complainants applied for a judicial review.
Just out of interest – why is a chant of “Death to the IDF” not deemed to be prosecutable? Why is a targeting of multiple visibly Jewish people in Stamford Hill and assaulting them not a “racially or religiously aggravated” offence? Is it possible these sorts of decisions led to a mindset in the police that resulted in a Jewish lawyer being questioned for wearing a Star of David?
Polling by Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that a record 59 per cent of British Jews did not believe that the CPS did enough to protect them – and that was before October 7. As a former attorney general of this country, I am surprised the figure is not higher – because I agree with them. I was first called to practice at the Bar in 1993 and I say this as someone who prosecuted many offences, and defended them, when I was in daily practice. Once, many years ago, I was even asked to support a local CPS area when it was undergoing an assessment by the CPS Inspectorate.
But confidence today is very low. The international community has noticed the UK’s deteriorating reputation for fair and equal justice. A clear indication of this is the extraordinary recent revelation that the US is actually considering offering asylum to British Jews because of surging antisemitism in the UK and the failure of British authorities to get a grip on it. Creating a dedicated and specialist CPS Antisemitism Unit to independently review allegations of anti-Jewish racism offences is a no-brainer. If faith in the institution is not to be lost altogether, it is crucial.
Sir Michael Ellis served as Attorney General for England and Wales from September to October 2022, and from March to September 2021
Join the JC for an exclusive discussion on law, policing and Jews in the UK. With former attorney general Sir Michael Ellis; Labour MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism Joani Reid; and Jewish Leadership Council head of legal David Toube. Moderated by JC political correspondent Lorin Bell-Cross. For details, click here
