Counter Terrorism and Special Crime Division

Welcome from the Head of Division

I am Sue Hemming, the Head of the Counter Terrorism and Special Crime Division and I would like to welcome you to our webpage.

This Division was set up on 4 April 2011 and merges the formerly separate Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Divisions. The new Division will continue the work of promoting excellence and will increase the resilience and efficiency in these very important and high profile areas of our work.

The Division is divided into three operational units, each headed by a Deputy Head of Division: Appeals - Deputy, Angela Deal; Counter Terrorism - Deputy, Deb Walsh; and Special Crime and Extradition - Deputy, Malcolm McHaffie.

We are seen as a centre of excellence and a place where lawyers and paralegal staff aspire to work, which is renowned for the quality of its prosecution advice. We are keen that all our lawyers are publicly accountable for the prosecuting decisions they make and encourage them to explain their decisions publicly.

Due to the high profile nature of the cases dealt with by the division, its lawyers have regular contact with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Keir Starmer QC, to update him on their work.

Because of the nature of many of the cases that we deal with we understand that there is considerable public interest in how cases are handled and through these pages and our public documents we aim to share information and provide transparency and accountability.

All of our prosecutors have spent many years working as criminal lawyers to ensure they have the necessary experience and expertise to deal with the demands of the casework.

Introduction to the Appeals Unit

The Appeals Unit was established in June 2010 with the dual function of being the central point of contact for the Administrative Court, Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and Supreme Court in all matters concerning the CPS, and conducting a range of appeal court cases where appropriate.

Concentrating appeals within a single specialist team allows the Appeals Unit to provide a consistent approach to decision making, to conduct cases to a very high standard ensuring that the right final outcome is achieved and to take a proactive approach towards identifying cases with national legal or policy implications, thereby developing and clarifying criminal case law.

The Appeals Unit:

• conducts judicial reviews and case stated appeals in the Administrative Court in which the CPS is named as party, including judicial reviews of decisions made by local CPS Areas to prosecute or not to prosecute a case.
• conducts of the majority of appeals against conviction and sentence in the Court of Appeal, and
• supports the Attorney General’s Office in the administration of Unduly Lenient Sentence appeals.

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Introduction to Counter Terrorism

The Counter Terrorism Division was set up primarily to deal with prosecuting terrorism cases which had been rapidly increasing in terms of size and complexity over the previous few years.

Terrorism still makes up the majority of our work but, as similar skills are required to handle such work, we also deal with all allegations of:

• incitement to racial and religious hatred
• stirring up hatred based on sexual orientation
• war crimes and crimes against humanity
• official secrets cases and
• piracy and hijacking

Cases against those suspected of terrorism are dealt with in the same way as any other criminal case. All decisions are made in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and a prosecutor needs to have sufficient evidence to afford a realistic prospect of a conviction before he or she can go on to consider the public interest.

More information about us can be found in the HMCPSi Report published on 16 April 2009 (link opens in a new window). Following publication of the report, we were awarded the Attorney General's award for Excellence and in 2010 we were awarded a Special Achievement Award by the International Association of Prosecutors.

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Introduction to Special Crime and the Extradition Unit

In Special Crime we have offices in York and London and the lawyers advise on and, where appropriate, prosecute some of the most sensitive and demanding cases across the country. They provide advice to investigating bodies such as the police, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

The casework includes:

• deaths in custody
• assisted suicides and euthanasia
• serious allegations against police officers
• corporate manslaughter including disasters
• gross negligence medical manslaughter
• serious public corruption
• election offences
• cases involving high profile individuals such as MPs
• CPS and Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) employees and
• leaks by public officials to journalists

Cases should be referred to Special Crime when certain criteria are met. You can read about these in our legal guidance section.

The division has recently worked on the prosecution of a number of Lords and former MPs over their parliamentary expenses, the man previously known as Jon Venables, the former commander in the Metropolitan Police Service Ali Dizaei, together with the tariff-setting for Peter Coonan (formerly Sutcliffe).

Following the Purdy judgement in July 2009 and in accordance with the DPP's Policy on Assisted Suicide, all cases of assisted suicide and so-called mercy killing are handled by our division.

The needs of victims and witnesses are a priority for us and it is now our practice, in appropriate cases, to invite victims or their families to meetings so we can update them on the progress of their cases and, once a decision is made, to explain its basis and answer any questions they may have.

The Extradition Unit is based in London and deals with:

• Incoming European Arrest Warrants (EAWs) – these relate to prosecutions outside the United Kingdom (known as "export" extradition) in the European Union and Gibraltar (Category 1 countries).
• All extradition for non Category 1 (both "export" and "import" cases).

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The Core Quality Standards and the Code for Crown Prosecutors

The Core Quality Standards set out the standard of service that the public can expect from the CPS.

The Code for Crown Prosecutors is a public document, issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions, that sets out the principles that Crown Prosecutors should follow when they make decisions on all cases.

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Press releases related to Special Crime

Press releases related to Counter Terrorism

List of publications relating to the work of Special Crime and Extradition

Bribery and misconduct

Joint guidance on bribery

CPS guidance on bribery and corruption – pre-Bribery Act

CPS guidance on misconduct in a public office

Offences needing the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions and/or the Attorney General to prosecute

Homicide and Accident Investigation

CPS guidance on prosecuting cases of homicide and manslaughter

CPS guidance on prosecuting cases of corporate manslaughter

CPS guidance on corporate prosecutions

CPS guidance on work related deaths

Health and Safety Executive protocol on work-related deaths (Opens in a new window)

CPS guidance on heroic acts by police officers and firefighters

Association of Chief Police Officers, Crown Prosecution Service, and Nursing and Midwifery Council joint agreement on NHS staff and patient safety (Opens in a new window)

CPS guidance on deaths in custody

Extradition

CPS guidance on extradition

European Framework Decision on Extradition (opens in new window)

Other Guidance

CPS guidance on allegations against serving police officers

CPS guidance on assisted suicide

CPS guidance on prosecuting cases of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation

CPS guidance on Direct Communication with Victims

CPS guidance on election offences

CPS guidance on encouraging crime

Protocol between the CPS and the Independent Police Complaints Commission

Memorandum of understanding on co-operation between the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales

HMCPSI's report on the work of the Special Crime Division

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Public documents

We understand that there is considerable public interest in how terrorism related cases are handled and we believe that it is right to share as much information as possible with our communities. For that reason we have created three public documents (the links to which are below) and we hope through this web page to be able to provide further information in the future.

The summary of terrorism related cases gives information about recent terrorism cases prosecuted by us.

Successful war crimes prosecutions since 2001 gives details of successfully concluded war crimes prosecutions since 2001.

The Violent Extremism (VE) document is a more general document about how VE cases are handled.

The War Crimes Referral Gateway sets out how the police and the CPS deal with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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