NCJ Number
155412
Date Published
1995
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This paper explains how the responsibility for criminal prosecutions is discharged in England and Wales.
Abstract
Any prosecution service funded by the State needs to strike a balance between the independence of the prosecuting authority and its accountability to the citizenry's elected representatives. On the one hand, there is a need to protect the criminal justice system decisionmaking process from inappropriate influence, but on the other hand, there has to be proper accountability in a system, such as that in England and Wales, where unelected prosecutors make decisions that crucially affect the liberty of the accused. The paper discusses prosecuting arrangements before the creation of the Crown Prosecution Service, the Philips Royal Commission which evaluated the British criminal process, the Prosecution of Offenses Act 1985, and the code for Crown prosecutors.