AC2.1- Explain the requirements of the CPS for the prosecution of suspects
To start at the beginning, the CPS was created by the Prosecution of Offences Act
1985, and is led by the Director of Public Prosecution (Stephen Parkinson), they work in
partnership with the police. The CPS have the roles of advising the police during early
stages of investigation, deciding which cases should be prosecuted and which should
not, and determining what the appropriate charge would be. They then prepare cases to
go to court as well as present said cases to the court and generally act as a 24 hour
service for the police.
To decide whether a case should be prosecuted or not, the CPS use the full Code Test,
which is comprised of the Evidential Test and the Public Interest Test (as well as the
Threshold Test in some cases), to ensure all cases meet a similar standard and are
more likely to get charged. Before the Criminal Justice Act (2003), police both
investigated and decided when to prosecute a case. Some forces had independent
prosecution departments, but this was not commonplace and, as a result, led to there
being significant bias where police got very invested in seeing the people they believed
had committed the offence be charged with it too.
The Evidential Test is that prosecutors must be certain that the evidence the police have
is sufficient for providing the best chances of being convicted on all charges. They must
also consider what the defence may be, and how that can be countered or how it may
affect the chances of conviction. For this, they ask questions such as can the evidence
be used in court? Is it reliable? Credible? Is there anything that may affect the
sufficiency of the evidence? At this stage, if a case fails this test it is highly unlikely that
it will be prosecuted at this time because the chances of there being no conviction are
very high, or even a mistrial occurring as without sufficient evidence such as a witness
or DNA evidence, it’s likely very little can be proved to have happened.
The Public Interest Test comes after the evidential test, and is intended to see whether
a prosecution of this case would be in the best interest of the public. It should be noted
that passing the evidential test does not immediately mean that a case will pass the
public interest test. In some cases, it may be found that a court disposal is better suited
for the public interest regarding a crime (so, a fine or a caution, etc). For this, they
consider questions like how serious is the crime committed? What is the level of
culpability of the suspect (was it planned? Are there previous convictions?) and what
was the circumstances of and harm caused to the victim? Was the suspect under 18 at
the time of offence? What was the impact on the community and is a prosecution a
proportionate response to the act? And, lastly, could any other cases be harmed by the
prosecuting of this one?
To start at the beginning, the CPS was created by the Prosecution of Offences Act
1985, and is led by the Director of Public Prosecution (Stephen Parkinson), they work in
partnership with the police. The CPS have the roles of advising the police during early
stages of investigation, deciding which cases should be prosecuted and which should
not, and determining what the appropriate charge would be. They then prepare cases to
go to court as well as present said cases to the court and generally act as a 24 hour
service for the police.
To decide whether a case should be prosecuted or not, the CPS use the full Code Test,
which is comprised of the Evidential Test and the Public Interest Test (as well as the
Threshold Test in some cases), to ensure all cases meet a similar standard and are
more likely to get charged. Before the Criminal Justice Act (2003), police both
investigated and decided when to prosecute a case. Some forces had independent
prosecution departments, but this was not commonplace and, as a result, led to there
being significant bias where police got very invested in seeing the people they believed
had committed the offence be charged with it too.
The Evidential Test is that prosecutors must be certain that the evidence the police have
is sufficient for providing the best chances of being convicted on all charges. They must
also consider what the defence may be, and how that can be countered or how it may
affect the chances of conviction. For this, they ask questions such as can the evidence
be used in court? Is it reliable? Credible? Is there anything that may affect the
sufficiency of the evidence? At this stage, if a case fails this test it is highly unlikely that
it will be prosecuted at this time because the chances of there being no conviction are
very high, or even a mistrial occurring as without sufficient evidence such as a witness
or DNA evidence, it’s likely very little can be proved to have happened.
The Public Interest Test comes after the evidential test, and is intended to see whether
a prosecution of this case would be in the best interest of the public. It should be noted
that passing the evidential test does not immediately mean that a case will pass the
public interest test. In some cases, it may be found that a court disposal is better suited
for the public interest regarding a crime (so, a fine or a caution, etc). For this, they
consider questions like how serious is the crime committed? What is the level of
culpability of the suspect (was it planned? Are there previous convictions?) and what
was the circumstances of and harm caused to the victim? Was the suspect under 18 at
the time of offence? What was the impact on the community and is a prosecution a
proportionate response to the act? And, lastly, could any other cases be harmed by the
prosecuting of this one?
