The decision to charge

In January 2006 sole responsibility for charging criminal suspects transferred from the police to the CPS, in all but the most minor and straightforward cases.

CPS Duty Prosecutors work closely with police officers; reviewing the evidence gathered throughout the investigation and advising on the case.  They are then responsible for deciding whether a person should be charged with a criminal offence and, if so, determining what that charge should be.

Duty Prosecutors are based in all four of the county's police charging centres - Alfreton, Buxton, Chesterfield and Derby - between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.  At all other times police officers must contact CPS Direct, the national out-of-hours phone service operated by a team of Duty Prosecutors working from home on a shift system.

Involving the CPS in criminal investigations at the earliest opportunity will help to ensure that all the necessary evidence is obtained before a defendant is charged.  This will enable us to build a stronger prosecution case and determine the correct charge right from the outset.

We will also be in a position to identify those weak cases without a realistic prospect of conviction and make sure they're not pursued, only to be discontinued once at court due to lack of sufficient evidence.  Weeding out these cases as soon as possible will avoid unnecessary waste of police, CPS and court time.