Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS)
| (Scottish Gaelic: Oifis an Ard-Ghnìomhachas agus Seirbheis Neach-casaid an Ard-Ghnìomhachas) (Scots: Croun Office an Procurator Fiscal Service) |
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| Agency overview | |
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| Type | Non-ministerial government department |
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Headquarters | 25 Chambers Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LA |
| Employees | 1650 |
| Annual budget | £113.24 million [2015-2016] |
| Minister responsible | |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Scottish Government |
| Website | www.crownoffice.gov.uk |
| Map | |
Scotland in the UK and Europe
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The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (Scottish Gaelic: Oifis an Ard-Ghnìomhachas agus Seirbheis Neach-casaid an Ard-Ghnìomhachas, Scots: Croun Office an Procurator Fiscal Service) is the independent public prosecution service for Scotland, and is a Ministerial Department of the Scottish Government. The department is headed by Her Majesty's Lord Advocate, who under the Scottish legal system is responsible for prosecution, along with the area Procurators fiscal. In Scotland, virtually all prosecution of criminal offences is undertaken by the Crown. Private prosecutions are extremely rare.
The Service's responsibilities extend to the whole of Scotland, and include:
The Lord Advocate is assisted by the Solicitor General for Scotland, both Law Officers. The day-to-day running of the Service is done by the Crown Agent & Chief Executive and a management board who are based in the department's headquarters in Chambers Street, Edinburgh.
The Service employs both civil servants who carry out administrative and other duties and solicitors and advocates who represent the Crown in Court.
The history of the Lord Advocate, and the resulting department of the Crown Office, is somewhat obscure. There are references on record to a king's procurator-fiscal in 1434 and 1457, and a queen's advocate in 1462. An office of king's advocate dates from 1478 but between 1478 and 1494 there are references to "advocates" (unnamed) and it is only from 1494 that one can be sure that there was a single king's advocate as the normal representative of the king in treason trials and in civil litigation. The office thus dates back to Medieval times, with the earliest Lord Advocate being John Ross of Montgrenan whom the King appointed as his commissioner at a hearing in Stirling in 1476, then as procurator for another case in Edinburgh in the following year.
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