Recommendation 6

HM Government Acknowledged

A proposal to require notice of a private prosecution to be given to the CPS was considered and rejected when the bill that became the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 was before Parliament; a Law Commission recommendation to similar effect in 1998 was also not accepted. The Law Commission’s view was that notifying the CPS about a prosecution would not impose a duty on the DPP to take it over, but it is by no means clear that being notified of a case would not imply a duty to review it. The CPS consider that once they had been notified of a private prosecution, they would be obliged to conduct an initial review, to make a proper assessment, and call for evidence from the prosecutor and the defendant. This would impose a significant burden on resources even if it did not lead to greater CPS involvement and a fuller review in due course. Simply ignoring a case or not considering it properly could lead to a judicial review. The proposal that defendants should be informed as a matter of course of their right to seek a review from the CPS is open to the same objection. It was considered in November 2020 by the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee, which declined to do as recommended for the same reasons as given above. The Rule Committee observed that such a requirement would apply to many private prosecutions brought by responsible quasi-public bodies, every one of which then would require review by the CPS. It has not been possible to identify any circumstances in which the police would be involved in a private prosecution.