The
Crown Prosecution Service, or
CPS, is a
non-ministerial
department of the
Government of the United Kingdom
responsible for public
prosecutions of
people charged with
criminal
offences in
England and Wales.
Its role
is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland
, and the
Public Prosecution
Service in Northern
Ireland
. The CPS is headed by the
Director of
Public Prosecutions (currently
Keir
Starmer QC) who answers to the
Attorney General
for England and Wales (currently
The Baroness
Scotland of Asthal).
The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for criminal cases
beyond the investigation, which is the job of the
police. This involves giving advice to the
police on charges to bring, and being responsible for authorising
all but a very few simple charges (such as
begging), and preparing and presenting cases for
court, both in
magistrates'
courts and, increasingly, the
Crown
Court.
History
Historically, in England, with no police forces and no prosecution
service, the only route to prosecution was through private
prosecutions brought by victims at their own expense or lawyers
acting on their behalf. From 1829 onwards, as the police forces
began to form, they began to take on the burden of bringing
prosecutions against suspected criminals.
In 1880,
Sir John Maule was appointed to
be the first Director of Public Prosecutions, operating as a part
of the
Home Office; the jurisdiction was
only for the decision as to whether to prosecute, and just for a
very small number of difficult or important cases; once prosecution
had been authorised, the matter was turned over to the
Treasury Solicitor. Police forces
continued to be responsible for the bulk of cases, sometimes
referring difficult ones to the Director. In 1884, the offices of
the DPP and the
Treasury
Solicitor were merged, but were again separated by the
Prosecution of Offences Act
1908.
In 1962, a
Royal Commission
recommended that police forces set up independent prosecution
departments so as to avoid having the same officers
investigate and prosecute cases though,
technically, the prosecuting police officers did so as private
citizens.
However, the Royal Commission's recommendation was not implemented
by all police forces, and so in 1978 another Royal Commission was
set up, this time headed by
Sir Cyril
Philips. It reported in 1981, recommending that a single
unified Crown Prosecution Service with responsibility for all
public prosecutions in
England and
Wales be set up. A
White Paper was
released in 1983, becoming the
Prosecution of Offences Act
1985, which established the CPS under the direction of the
Director of Public Prosecutions, consisting of a merger of his old
department with the existing police prosecution departments. It
started operating in 1986.
In April 1999, after a review of the CPS carried out by
Sir Iain Glidewell was published in June
1998, the CPS was reorganised from 14 to 42 geographical areas,
following the boundaries of the police forces (except in London,
where the area covers the boundaries of both the
Metropolitan Police and the
City of London Police).
The power of the police to charge for all but the most minor
offences was transferred to the CPS following the
Criminal Justice Act 2003.
It was suggested in late 2004 that the name of the department could
be changed to the
Public Prosecution Service in order to
affirm its role to
citizens as a public
service, but some suggest that such a change would undermine the
constitutional role of the department, nominally at least. It is
unclear whether a name change is imminent, or is still being
discussed at all. This proposed change was very unpopular within
the Service as being pointless and otiose, as well as somehow
insulting.
In November 2005, the Director of Public Prosecutions reported that
a pilot scheme was being introduced where the CPS would be allowed
to interview witnesses before taking a case to trial.
A similar practice is
already carried out in Scotland (where it is
called precognition),
Canada
, and the United States
.
The role of the CPS
The Crown Prosecution Service must first decide, after evidence is
gathered by the police, whether the case should be pursued further.
If it is not pursued it is dropped. Their main function is to
prosecute on behalf of the state; however, they will prosecute a
case only if there is enough evidence to provide a 'realistic
prospect of conviction' against each defendant on each charge and
the case is in the public interest. Primarily, they review the
evidence, and give guidance on the police evidence; they prosecute
in the magistrates court if there is enough evidence and, if the
case needs to go to crown court, they either hire independent
advocates to prosecute for them or, increasingly, use their own
in-house higher court advocates.
In 2006, with the creation of the
Serious Organised Crime
Agency the CPS became responsible for the prosecution of cases
investigated and charged by that body. All of the work in this
regard is undertaken by the Organised Crime Division and prosecuted
by their in-house advocates who, recruited from the senior ranks of
the Bar, are specialists in their field. There are similar
departments which deal with counter terrorism and special crime,
neither of which employ their own advocates.
The
Code for Crown Prosecutors sets out the basis upon
which prosecutions are refused, discontinued or proceeded with.
Pre-charge advice by prosecutors at police stations (overnight and
at weekends by telephone) also applies the charging standards to
decide which is the appropriate level of charge. Officers provide
the prosecutor with the evidence gathered and although there may be
a decision not to charge the lawyer will assist the officer by
explaining what additional work or evidence could raise the case to
a viable charging standard.
List of Directors of Public Prosecutions since 1986
References
- Dyer, Clare "Criminal justice revolution to secure more
convictions", The Guardian, London, 11 November 2005:
1-2
- CPS Code for Crown Prosecutors -
http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/docs/code2004english.pdf l
See also
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