Prosecution of Offences Act 1985

Constitution and functions of ServiceE+W

1 The Crown Prosecution Service.E+W

(1)There shall be a prosecuting service for England and Wales (to be known as the “Crown Prosecution Service ”) consisting of—

(a)the Director of Public Prosecutions, who shall be head of the Service;

(b)the Chief Crown Prosecutors, designated under subsection (4) below, each of whom shall be the member of the Service responsible to the Director for supervising the operation of the Service in his area; and

(c)the other staff appointed by the Director under this section.

(2)The Director shall appoint such staff for the Service as, with the approval of the Treasury as to numbers, remuneration and other terms and conditions of service, he considers necessary for the discharge of his functions.

(3)The Director may designate any member of the Service [F1who has a general qualification (within the meaning of section 71 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990)] for the purposes of this subsection, and any person so designated shall be known as a Crown Prosecutor.

(4)The Director shall divide England and Wales into areas and, for each of those areas, designate a Crown Prosecutor for the purposes of this subsection and any person so designated shall be known as a Chief Crown Prosecutor.

(5)The Director may, from time to time, vary the division of England and Wales made for the purposes of subsection (4) above.

(6)Without prejudice to any functions which may have been assigned to him in his capacity as a member of the Service, every Crown Prosecutor shall have all the powers of the Director as to the institution and conduct of proceedings but shall exercise those powers under the direction of the Director.

(7)Where any enactment (whenever passed)—

(a)prevents any step from being taken without the consent of the Director or without his consent or the consent of another; or

(b)requires any step to be taken by or in relation to the Director;

any consent given by or, as the case may be, taken by or in relation to, a Crown Prosecutor shall be treated, for the purposes of that enactment, as given by or, as the case may be, taken by or in relation to the Director.

2 The Director of Public ProsecutionsE+W

(1)The Director of Public Prosecutions shall be appointed by the Attorney General.

(2)The Director must be a [F2person who has a ten year general qualification, within the meaning of section 71 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990].

(3)There shall be paid to the Director such remuneration as the Attorney General may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine.

3 Functions of the Director.E+W

(1)The Director shall discharge his functions under this or any other enactment under the superintendence of the Attorney General.

(2)It shall be the duty of the Director [F3, subject to any provisions contained in the Criminal Justice Act 1987] —

(a)to take over the conduct of all criminal proceedings, other than specified proceedings, instituted on behalf of a police force (whether by a member of that force or by any other person);

[F4(aa)to take over the conduct of any criminal proceedings instituted by an immigration officer (as defined for the purposes of the M1Immigration Act 1971) acting in his capacity as such an officer;]

(b)to institute and have the conduct of criminal proceedings in any case where it appears to him that—

(i)the importance or difficulty of the case makes it appropriate that proceedings should be instituted by him; or

(ii)it is otherwise appropriate for proceedings to be instituted by him;

[F5(ba)to institute and have the conduct of any criminal proceedings in any case where the proceedings relate to the subject-matter of a report a copy of which has been sent to him under paragraph 23 or 24 of Schedule 3 to the Police Reform Act 2002 (c. 30)(reports on investigations into conduct of persons serving with the police);]

(c)to take over the conduct of all binding over proceedings instituted on behalf of a police force (whether by a member of that force or by any other person);

(d)to take over the conduct of all proceedings begun by summons issued under section 3 of the M2Obscene Publications Act 1959 (forfeiture of obscene articles);

(e)to give, to such extent as he considers appropriate, advice to police forces on all matters relating to criminal offences;

[F6(ea)to have the conduct of any extradition proceedings;

(eb)to give, to such extent as he considers appropriate, and to such persons as he considers appropriate, advice on any matters relating to extradition proceedings or proposed extradition proceedings;

[F7(ec)to give, to such extent as he considers appropriate, advice to immigration officers on matters relating to criminal offences;]]

(f)to appear for the prosecution, when directed by the court to do so, on any appeal under—

(i)section 1 of the M3Administration of Justice Act 1960 (appeal from the High Court in criminal cases);

(ii)Part I or Part II of the M4Criminal Appeal Act 1968 (appeals from the Crown Court to the criminal division of the Court of Appeal and thence to the House of Lords); or

(iii)section 108 of the M5Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 (right of appeal to Crown Court) as it applies, by virtue of subsection (5) of section 12 of the M6Contempt of Court Act 1981, to orders made under section 12 (contempt of magistrates’ courts); F8. . .

[F9(fa)to have the conduct of applications for orders under section 1C of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (orders made on conviction of certain offences) and section 14A of the Football Spectators Act 1989 (banning orders made on conviction of certain offences);]

(g)to discharge such other functions as may from time to time be assigned to him by the Attorney General in pursuance of this paragraph.

[F10(2A)Subsection (2)(ea) above does not require the Director to have the conduct of any extradition proceedings in respect of a person if he has received a request not to do so and—

(a)in a case where the proceedings are under Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003, the request is made by the authority which issued the Part 1 warrant in respect of the person;

(b)in a case where the proceedings are under Part 2 of that Act, the request is made on behalf of the territory to which the person’s extradition has been requested.]

(3)In this section—

• “the court ” means—

(a)in the case of an appeal to or from the criminal division of the Court of Appeal, that division;

(b)in the case of an appeal from a Divisional Court of the Queen’s Bench Division, the Divisional Court; and

(c)in the case of an appeal against an order of a magistrates’ court, the Crown Court;

• “police force ” means any police force maintained by a police authority under [F11the M7Police Act 1996][F12, the National Crime Squad] and any other body of constables for the time being specified by order made by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this section; and

• “specified proceedings ” means proceedings which fall within any category for the time being specified by order made by the Attorney General for the purposes of this section.

(4)The power to make orders under subsection (3) above shall be exercisable by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

4 Crown Prosecutors.E+W

F13(1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F13(2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F13(3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F13(3A). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F13(3B). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F13(3C). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F13(3D). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F13(3E). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(4)In section 88 of the M8Solicitors Act 1974 (which, amongst other things, provides that solicitors in public departments are not required to hold practising certificates) the following subsection shall be inserted after subsection (1)—

“(1A)The exemption from the requirement to hold a practising certificate conferred by subsection (1) above shall not apply to solicitors who are Crown Prosecutors.”

(5). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F14

(6)In Schedule 2 to the Act of 1974 (the compensation fund), in paragraph 2, for the words “sub-paragraph (2) ” there shall be substituted the words “sub-paragraphs (2) and (2A) ” and after sub-paragraph (2) there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph—

“(2A)Sub-paragraph (1) above shall not apply to any solicitor who is a Crown Prosecutor.”

5 Conduct of prosecutions on behalf of the Service.E+W

(1)The Director may at any time appoint a person who is not a Crown Prosecutor but [F15who has a general qualification (within the meaning of section 71 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990)] to institute or take over the conduct of such criminal proceedings [F16or extradition proceedings] as the Director may assign to him.

(2)Any person conducting proceedings assigned to him under this section shall have all the powers of a Crown Prosecutor but shall exercise those powers subject to any instructions given to him by a Crown Prosecutor.

6 Prosecutions instituted and conducted otherwise than by the Service.E+W

(1)Subject to subsection (2) below, nothing in this Part shall preclude any person from instituting any criminal proceedings or conducting any criminal proceedings to which the Director’s duty to take over the conduct of proceedings does not apply.

(2)Where criminal proceedings are instituted in circumstances in which the Director is not under a duty to take over their conduct, he may nevertheless do so at any stage.

7 Delivery of recognizances etc. to Director.E+W

(1)Where the Director or any Crown Prosecutor gives notice to any justice of the peace that he has instituted, or is conducting, any criminal proceedings, the justice shall—

(a)at the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner; or

(b)in a particular case, at the time and in the manner directed by the Attorney General;

send him every recognizance, information, certificate, deposition, document and thing connected with those proceedings which the justice is required by law to deliver to the appropriate officer of the Crown Court.

(2)The Attorney General may make regulations for the purpose of supplementing this section; and in subsection (1) above “prescribed ” means prescribed by the regulations.

(3)The Director or, as the case may be, Crown Prosecutor shall—

(a)subject to the regulations, cause anything which is sent to him under subsection (1) above to be delivered to the appropriate officer of the Crown Court; and

(b)be under the same obligation (on the same payment) to deliver to an applicant copies of anything so sent as that officer.

(4)It shall be the duty of [F17the designated officer for every magistrates' court] to send to the Director, in accordance with the regulations, a copy of the information and of any depositions and other documents relating to any case in which—

(a)a prosecution for an offence before [F18the magistrates' court] is withdrawn or is not proceeded with within a reasonable time;

(b)the Director does not have the conduct of the proceedings; and

(c)there is some ground for suspecting that there is no satisfactory reason for the withdrawal or failure to proceed.

[F197A Powers of non-legal staff.E+W

(1)The Director may designate, for the purposes of this section, members of the staff of the Crown Prosecution Service who are not Crown Prosecutors.

(2)Subject to such exceptions (if any) as may be specified in the designation, a person so designated shall have such of the following as may be so specified, namely—

(a)the powers and rights of audience of a Crown Prosecutor in relation to—

(i)applications for, or relating to, bail in criminal proceedings;

(ii)the conduct of criminal proceedings in magistrates’ courts other than trials;

(b)the powers of such a Prosecutor in relation to the conduct of criminal proceedings not falling within paragraph (a)(ii) above.

(3)A person so designated shall exercise any such powers subject to instructions given to him by the Director.

(4)Any such instructions may be given so as to apply generally.

(5)For the purposes of this section—

(a)“bail in criminal proceedings ” has the same meaning as it would have in the M9Bail Act 1976 by virtue of the definition in section 1 of that Act if in that section “offence ” did not include an offence to which subsection (6) below applies;

(b)“criminal proceedings ” does not include proceedings for an offence to which subsection (6) below applies; and

(c)a trial begins with the opening of the prosecution case after the entry of a plea of not guilty and ends with the conviction or acquittal of the accused.

(6)This subsection applies to an offence if it is triable only on indictment, or is an offence—

(a)for which the accused has elected to be tried by a jury;

(b)which a magistrates’ court has decided is more suitable to be so tried; or

(c)in respect of which a notice of transfer has been given under section 4 of the M10Criminal Justice Act 1987 or section 53 of the M11Criminal Justice Act 1991.

(7)Details of the following for any year, namely—

(a)the criteria applied by the Director in determining whether to designate persons under this section;

(b)the training undergone by persons so designated; and

(c)any general instructions given by the Director under subsection (4) above,

shall be set out in the Director’s report under section 9 of this Act for that year.]