CPS Legal Trainee Scheme 2026: The Complete Guide

Last updated: April 2026. Sources: Legal 500 Future Lawyers, CPS official recruitment, Counsel Magazine.

The CPS Legal Trainee Scheme gives you real criminal casework from week one, guaranteed Crown Prosecutor employment on completion, and a civil service pension that most private firms cannot touch. It takes 80 trainees per year across England and Wales. Applications typically open in January for an October start two years later.

There is one thing to get straight before anything else: the CPS does not fund SQE. You must have already passed SQE1 and SQE2 (or the LPC) before you can start. If SQE funding is what you need, the Government Legal Profession scheme is what you are looking for, not this one. More on that below.

If you are genuinely interested in criminal prosecution, keep reading.

---

What Is the Crown Prosecution Service?

The CPS is England and Wales's principal prosecuting authority. It employs around 7,000 people across 14 geographical areas, with headquarters at 102 Petty France, London, and 33 further offices from Birmingham and Manchester to Cardiff and Leeds.

When police investigate a crime, it is the CPS that decides whether to charge, what to charge with, and how to present the case in court. Prosecutors apply the Code for Crown Prosecutors, which requires both an evidential test (is there a realistic prospect of conviction?) and a public interest test (is prosecution appropriate in the circumstances?). These two tests sit at the centre of every charging decision and every application you will draft as a trainee.

The Director of Public Prosecutions is currently Stephen Parkinson. The CPS handles everything from low-level magistrates' court work to serious organised crime, counter-terrorism, and complex financial fraud.

---

Salary and Benefits

This is better than most guides suggest.

On top of the base salary:

• Civil Service pension: The CPS contributes up to 28.9% of your salary toward a Defined Benefit pension. This is one of the most valuable benefits in UK employment and is not reflected in salary comparisons with private firms.
• 25 days annual leave, rising to 30 after five years, plus bank holidays and a King's Birthday privilege day.
• £350 individual learning and development allowance per year.
• Three days paid volunteering leave.
• Flexible and hybrid working.
• Cycle to work scheme, childcare vouchers, and wellbeing services.
• Competitive maternity, paternity, and shared parental leave.

The NQ salary of £44,520 to £50,000 in London is meaningfully higher than many regional private firms offer newly qualified solicitors, and comes without the billable hours pressure.

---

What Legal Trainees Actually Do

There is no single typical day. That is not a vague non-answer: the caseload is genuinely varied from week to week.

Core responsibilities across the two-year scheme include:

Charging and case review. Reviewing police case files, applying the evidential and public interest tests, advising on charging decisions. This is substantive legal work, not just observation.

Court attendance. First-year trainees shadow proceedings in magistrates' courts and Crown Courts. After completing the associate prosecutor's course, trainees can conduct independent advocacy in magistrates' court proceedings.

Drafting. Court applications, legal submissions, correspondence with defence solicitors and police. You write documents that go in front of judges.

Legal research. Case law, statutory interpretation, research to support charging decisions and trial preparation.

Specialist placements. Trainees rotate through units including the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) unit and the Complex Casework Unit, which handles serious and organised crime.

One current trainee describes it this way: "There isn't a definitive day in the life of a legal trainee. Every day is different." Another notes: "I knew I wanted to work in criminal law, and the Crown Prosecution Service offered better pay and benefits, training and opportunities than a criminal defence firm."

What you get from day one is exposure to real decisions with real consequences. A magistrates' court case might seem routine, but the person in the dock is not having a routine day. That is the environment from the start.

---

The SQE Requirement: Plan Ahead

This is the part that catches people out.

To start the CPS Legal Trainee Scheme, you must have already successfully completed either:

• SQE1 and SQE2, or
• The LPC (under the transitional route, available to those enrolled before September 2021)

Your qualifications must be provided to the CPS recruitment team by 1 September in the year you start. There is no deferral.

SQE exam fees alone are currently £4,908 (£1,934 for SQE1 and £2,974 for SQE2). Preparation course costs add a further £2,500 to £18,000+ depending on provider. The cost calculator will show you a full financial breakdown, and the SQE provider comparison covers what each provider costs and what they offer.

This does not make the CPS a bad route. Many trainees have self-funded SQE through paralegal savings, minimal-course self-study, or funding from previous employers. But it requires a clear financial plan before you apply.

If SQE funding is what you need: The Government Legal Profession (GLP) Legal Trainee Scheme covers GLD, HMRC, NCA, the CMA, and other government departments, and does fund SQE preparation, including course fees, exam fees, and a cost-of-living bursary. That is a separate application from the CPS scheme. The GLP 2026 campaign was expected to open in April 2026.

The CPS also runs its own Solicitor Apprenticeship route, a six-year fully funded programme leading to qualification as a solicitor. If you want the CPS but cannot self-fund SQE, look at that route as an alternative.

---

Who Gets In: Entry Requirements

Academic: The CPS requires a 2:2 or above in any degree subject. A law degree is not required. This is more accessible than most City firms, which typically require a 2:1 and often have informal preferences for certain universities.

The Code for Crown Prosecutors. Read it before you apply. It is publicly available and free. Most applicants have not read it. Understand what the evidential test and the public interest test mean in practice, not just in theory.

Criminal justice motivation. The CPS can quickly tell the difference between someone who wants any training position and someone who specifically wants to work in criminal prosecution. The assessment process tests this directly. Vague answers about being "passionate about justice" will not get you through. Specific answers about prosecution decisions you have thought about, or proceedings you have observed, will.

Court observation. If you can spend time in a magistrates' court as an observer before applying, do it. It is free and open to the public. Being able to describe what you watched and what it made you think about the prosecutor's role is genuinely useful in interview.

Relevant experience. The CPS is not looking for vacation schemes at commercial firms. Relevant background includes work with police, courts, probation, criminal defence solicitors, Citizens Advice, legal aid, court administration, or any role in the criminal justice system. Voluntary work counts. The field is more open than commercial law recruitment.

---

The Application Process

The scheme runs on an annual cycle. For the October 2028 start, applications are expected to open in January 2027 and close around early February 2027. The window is approximately six weeks. Start preparing well before it opens.

Stage One: Online Application

• Short application form with competency-based questions
• Casework skills test
• Civil Service verbal reasoning test
• CV upload

The competency framework used is the Civil Service Success Profiles. Familiarise yourself with the five elements: Behaviours, Strengths, Ability, Experience, and Technical. The application will test several of these.

Stage Two: Video Interview

Invitations typically go out within days of the application window closing. For the 2026 cycle, invitations were issued 5 to 6 February 2026. You have a short window to complete the recorded video interview.

Prepare structured answers using the STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Have specific examples ready for: working under pressure, making decisions with limited information, demonstrating integrity, and showing commitment to criminal prosecution specifically.

Stage Three: In-Person Interview and Assessment Centre

The final stage includes a written exercise, a competency-based interview, and likely a group exercise. This is where knowledge of the Code for Crown Prosecutors, understanding of what the CPS does, and genuine motivation for the role are tested most directly.

---

Secondments and Career Development

One underreported aspect of the CPS Legal Trainee Scheme is the secondment programme. Trainees can access placements at:

• External law firms
• The Competition and Markets Authority
• The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
• High street commercial firms

These secondments provide exposure to different legal environments without abandoning the prosecution career track. If you want to keep options open, they are worth factoring in.

Within the CPS, specialist units in serious organised crime, counter-terrorism, and complex financial fraud are real progression destinations. There is a clear internal career path for those who want to stay and build in the public sector.

---

Honest Pros and Cons

Why the CPS makes sense

Guaranteed employment on completion. No other legal training route in the UK offers this. Private firms can and do withdraw training contracts. The CPS guarantees you a Crown Prosecutor or Crown Advocate position on satisfactory completion. The security is real and significant.

Immediate substantive work. Real charging decisions on real cases from early on. Court exposure that private firm trainees often do not get until much later in their careers.

QWE built in. Your two years at CPS counts as Qualifying Work Experience for SQE purposes. You do not need to chase an employer to sign off competencies. The QWE tracker is still useful for logging evidence of your development, which you will want for any future progression conversation.

The pension. A civil service Defined Benefit pension with contributions up to 28.9% of salary is worth considerably more than the headline salary comparison with commercial firms suggests.

Work/life balance. Criminal prosecution is demanding. But the culture is measurably different from commercial private practice, and the hours are not structured around billable targets.

Geographic spread. Offices across England and Wales. You can qualify without moving to London.

NQ salary. £44,520 to £50,000 at NQ level is competitive with regional private practice and many mid-market London firms.

Where to think carefully

SQE not funded. You arrive qualified, at your own expense. That is a real upfront cost requiring planning. The CPS Solicitor Apprenticeship is the funded alternative if you cannot self-fund.

Criminal law only. Two years of prosecution experience is valuable but narrow. If you later want commercial law, you will face a harder route in than candidates whose entire training was in commercial seats.

Salary during training. £30,700 to £32,430 nationally is lower than commercial training contracts. Top City firms now pay £50,000 to £60,000+ in training. The pension and security mitigate this but do not eliminate the difference.

Public sector pace. Bureaucracy is a real feature of civil service employment. It can be frustrating for people who want to move fast.

---

How to Approach the Application

A few things that make a material difference:

Read the Code for Crown Prosecutors in full. Not a summary. The actual document. Understand the Full Code Test: both the evidential stage and the public interest stage. Know what factors point toward prosecution and what factors point away from it. Be able to talk about specific scenarios where the balance would be difficult.

Spend time in a magistrates' court. It is free and open. Go at least once before applying. What you observe gives you specific, credible material to discuss in your application and interview.

Be specific about criminal prosecution. Not "justice" in the abstract. Not "helping people." Specifically why you want to prosecute cases, why the public interest angle matters to you, what you understand about the tension between prosecution and civil liberties. Generic motivation answers will not get you through Stage Three.

Use Civil Service Success Profiles properly. Not just STAR. The Strengths-based elements ask you to describe what you genuinely enjoy doing and find energising. Prepare honest, specific answers rather than polished-sounding ones. Recruiters who use strength-based questions have been trained to spot prepared answers.

---

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the CPS fund SQE?

No. You must complete SQE1 and SQE2 (or the LPC) before starting, at your own expense. If you need SQE funding, look at the Government Legal Profession scheme, which covers SQE fees and a bursary for placements at GLD, HMRC, NCA, and the CMA.

How many places are available?

80 places per year, nationally. Source: Legal 500 Future Lawyers 2026.

What salary will I receive?

£30,700 to £32,430 nationally, or £32,110 to £34,280 plus a £3,150 recruitment and retention allowance in London. On qualifying as a Crown Prosecutor, the salary rises to £44,520 to £47,720 nationally or £46,800 to £50,000 in London.

When do applications open?

Typically January each year. For October 2028 start, applications are expected to open January 2027 and close in early February 2027. Check cps.gov.uk/careers/legal-trainee for confirmed dates.

What degree do I need?

A 2:2 or above in any subject. A law degree is not required.

Is there a funded alternative at the CPS?

Yes. The CPS Solicitor Apprenticeship is a six-year, fully-funded programme. If you cannot self-fund SQE, this is the CPS route to look at.

Can I move to private practice after qualifying at the CPS?

Yes, particularly into criminal defence, legal aid, and regulatory work. Moving into commercial law as a CPS NQ is harder and requires a clear rationale for why your prosecution background adds something to a commercial practice.

Does CPS experience count as QWE?

Yes. Your two years as a CPS Legal Trainee counts as Qualifying Work Experience for SQE admission purposes.

---

For the full cost picture on self-funding SQE before applying: SQE cost calculator. For choosing a provider: SQE provider comparison. For understanding SQE itself: SQE explained.