Proposed Independent Prosecuting Service: The Prosecutor's Viewpoint
| DOI | 10.1177/002201838404800310 |
| Published date | 01 August 1984 |
| Date | 01 August 1984 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
PROPOSED
INDEPENDENT
PROSECUTING
SERVICE:
THE
PROSECUTOR'S
VIEWPOINT
History
The
proposals to create an
independent
and central government
funded prosecution service which
are
now
put
forward
and
which, it
would appear, are at last to obtain statutory recognition,
are
not in
principle new. In 1790,
Jeremy
Bentham
criticised the absence of
system and
order
in the bringing of criminal prosecutions in
England and Wales. His view was reiterated in the 8th
Report
of the
Criminal Law Commission
(1845)
where, after pointing
out
that
private prosecutions facilitated
"bribery,
collusion
and
illegal
compromises" the Commission recommended
"the
direct and
obvious course for remedying such defects would consist in the
appointment of public prosecutors".
In 1856, the Select
Committee
on Public Prosecutors set up in
part as a result of the Criminal Law Commission's report, recom-
mended the
appointment
by the
Home
Secretary of District agents
who were to be Attorneys of not less than seven years' standing.
These full-time officials were to be responsible for bringing before
the magistrates persons suspected of criminal offences if this had
not already been done. In cases of difficulty and importance, they
were to be
empowered
to
take
over
the conduct
of
the prosecution.
District agents were to instruct counsel and on each circuit advising
counsel were to be
appointed
by the Attorney-General.
The
whole
scheme was to be administered by the Attorney-General.
Whether
it was the result of opposition from those who feared
concentration of
power
and
patronage
in central government,
pressure from existing legal bodies, particularly the Bar,
or
simply
the inertia which
appears
to affect movements for law reform in this
country, may be a
matter
of
doubt
but nothing substantial was
done
until 1879 when the Prosecution of Offences Act was passed,
providing for the appointment of the Director of Public Prosecu-
tions.
302
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