About CPS Direct

How we work

As the principal prosecuting authority in England and Wales the Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for deciding what charges are to be brought against suspects in more serious or complex cases. CPS prosecutors work closely with police colleagues as The Prosecution Team to build strong cases from the start.

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CPS Direct is the national service that provides police officers and other investigators across England and Wales with access to out of hours charging decisions from the Crown Prosecution Service each weekday from 5pm until 9am, and continuously at weekends and Public Holidays. Since January 2012, we have been working with some local CPS Areas to support their delivery of charging decisions during the daytime.

We have a dedicated network of CPS Prosecutors based throughout England and Wales, linked to the police via IT and telephony. Police officers and other investigators call a single national number and are connected to the next available Prosecutor.

Calls to CPS Direct

To contact CPS Direct police officers and other investigators call a single national number. Once connected, they are required to enter their force code identifier via the handset.

Officers from a non-geographic force, such as British Transport Police (BTP), are required to enter their own force code followed by the code of the force in whose area they are operating.

They are also given the option of being connected to a rape charging lawyer. This allows them to receive prompt, specialist advice in such cases.

The call is connected to the next available Prosecutor.

Call Volume

One of the key targets for CPS Direct is the speed with which it responds to calls from police officers and other investigators requiring charging advice. To maintain our service levels we must ensure that our staffing reflects the volume of incoming calls.

We receive over 3000 calls each week and we produce detailed call volume data on a daily basis. We review this data regularly to match the number of prosecutors on duty each hour against expected levels of demand for charging decisions.

Callbacks

We work hard to ensure the number of available prosecutors is adequate to meet the expected demand for charging decisions. However, it is not always possible to predict sudden surges in demand for charging advice and callers will not always be connected to a CPS Direct prosecutor straight away.

If all Duty Prosecutors are engaged on a call, any new call will initially wait in a queue for the next available Duty Prosecutor. However, if the call is not answered within the first minute of queuing, callers are given the option to request a call back. Officers still have the choice to remain on the line.

Callers who request a call back will be required to enter a direct dial number (this can be a mobile) and may then put the phone down and wait for the return call.

Whichever option the officer chooses, the call will retain its place in the queue. In the case of a call back, when the call reaches the front of the queue the system automatically calls the officer back and connects them to the next available Duty Prosecutor. Because the call keeps its place in the queue, it is far more effective for a caller to request a call back in this way than to abandon the call and try later.

Charging Decisions

Once connected, the Prosecutor and the police officer or other investigator will work together to deliver the charging decision. We are only available to make charging decisions for persons in police custody at the time of the consultation. We will deal with any case where the police are in possession of the evidence/material required by the Director of Public Prosecution's Guidance on Charging.

It is a common misconception that we can only advise on Threshold Test cases. In fact, we can provide charging advice in all cases where the evidence is available, whether or not the suspect is regarded as suitable for bail in the event of a charge.

After some initial screening questions the prosecutor will look at the request for a charging decision (form MG3) and the evidence obtained and discuss the case with the officer. The prosecutor may then make a charging decision and set out an action plan for any further work needed to prepare the case for trial.

Alternatively, the prosecutor may decide that the case is not ready for a charge. The prosecutor may feel that some key evidence is still required. In these circumstances an action plan will still be discussed and set out and a bail date for the suspect will be agreed.

A third possibility is that the prosecutor may decide there is insufficient evidence for a prosecution and that further work would be fruitless. Whatever the decision, the prosecutor will complete the MG3 and send it back to the police officer so that there is a written record of the decision and everyone is clear on what to do next.