Crown Prosecution Service
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| Non-ministerial government department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1986 |
| Jurisdiction | England and Wales |
| Headquarters |
Southwark Bridge London, SE1 |
| Employees | 6,840 |
| Annual budget | £592 million (2012–13) |
| Minister responsible | |
| Non-ministerial government department executives |
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| Website | www.cps.gov.uk |
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public prosecuting agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Its main responsibilities are to provide legal advice to the police and other investigative agencies during the course of criminal investigations, to decide whether a suspect should face criminal charges following an investigation and to conduct prosecutions both in the magistrates' courts and the Crown Court.
The Attorney General for England and Wales superintends the CPS's work and answers for it in Parliament, although the Attorney has no influence over the conduct of prosecutions, except when national security is an issue or for a small number of offences that require the Attorney’s permission to prosecute.
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 were formed, they began to take on the burden of bringing prosecutions against suspected criminals.
Sir John Maule was appointed to be the first Director of Public Prosecutions in 1880, 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 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, although technically the prosecuting police officers did so as private citizens. The Royal Commission's recommendation was not implemented by all police forces however, 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.
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