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New Code for Crown Prosecutors

Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 8:02 am | In News | Post Comment

CPS - New Code

Keir Starmer QC, Director of Public Prosecutions has issued a clarified and updated edition of The Code for Crown Prosecutors.

Changes include:

A clearer explanation of the public interest factors tending in favour of and against prosecution;
A clearer explanation of how the public interest stage of the Full Code Test is applied;
Prosecutors having a discretion to stop a prosecution in the public interest, in exceptional circumstances, before all of the evidence is available;
A fuller section explaining the use of out-of-court disposals for both adults and youths;
Prosecutors being able to conduct pre-trial witness interviews when it is needed to assess the reliability of a witness’ evidence or better understand complex evidence.

The Code applies to all CPS prosecutors and police officers when making charging decisions.