Crown Prosecution Service

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 or bail offences), and preparing and presenting cases for court, both in the Magistrates' Court and, increasingly, the Crown Court.

1 History
2 List of Heads of the CPS
3 References
4 External link

[edit] History

Initially, with no Police forces and no prosecution service, the only route to prosecution was through private prosecutions brought by victims, either by themselves or by lawyers at their own expense. 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 ^[1]. A similar practice is already carried out in Scotland (where it is called precognition), Canada, and the United States.