The Code for Crown Prosecutors
Easy Read Version
2010
What is in this document?
- Introduction
- General principles
- Should someone be prosecuted?
- The Full Code Test
- The Threshold Test
- What Crime to Charge Someone With?
- Out-of-Court Disposals
- Youths
- Where Trials Take Place?
- When a Defendant Says They are Guilty
- The Prosecutor's Role in Sentencing
- Thinking Again About a Prosecution Decision
How to Use this Document
The Code for Crown Prosecutors is a document for prosecutors who work for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The Code tells prosecutors how to make decisions about people who have been arrested for doing a crime.
The Code helps prosecutors work out what to charge the person with and how their case should be dealt with by the CPS and the courts.
Prosecutors use the difficult version of the Code to help them make decisions. The difficult version says things in a very official and legal way.
This document is the easy read version of the Code.
It has been produced to help members of the public find out how prosecutors make their decisions.
As you go through the document you will find some difficult words written in blue. A word in blue tells you that you can look up what it means in the 'Difficult Words' section at the end of the document.
Acknowledgements
This Easy Read document was prepared by a team of people with and without learning difficulties based at:
Values Into Action - www.viauk.org
Photographs are by:
Photosymbols - www.photosymbols.com
More information
You can get more information about the Code for Crown Prosecutors and the work of the Crown Prosecution Service from:
By post:
Crown Prosecution Service
Communication Division
Rose Court
Southwark Bridge
London SE1 9HS
By email:
publicity.branch@cps.gsi.gov.uk
On this website:
Difficult words
- Charge
The charge is the name of the crime that someone does and the law that makes it wrong. The prosecutor normally decides what to charge someone with after the police have arrested them.
