Updated: 14 November 2018; 04 April 2024

This guidance is to assist prosecutors who will sometimes have to decide whether to charge an offence, or continue with a prosecution, where a nominal penalty is likely.

Updated: 4 December 2019

Judges, district judges and magistrates may express a view about CPS policy, decision- making or conduct of a particular case. This may be in public or in private; favourable or unfavourable.

Updated: 21 July 2022

In some circumstances, the parties to the case can challenge the empanelment of a juror through ‘Stand By’ or ‘Challenge to Cause’, full details of which are set out in this document.

Updated: January 2019; Revised 19 September 2023

Updated: 22 April 2020: 30 March 2023

Custody Time Limits (CTL) safeguard unconvicted defendants by preventing them from being held in pre-trial custody for an excessive period of time. The Act and Regulations governing CTLs require the prosecution to progresses cases to trial diligently and expeditiously.

Updated: 2 August 2022; Updated 4 October 2023

The CPS is sometimes asked to supply to third parties copies of documents held in prosecution files. The request might be made for the purpose of prosecuting or defending a private prosecution; for civil proceedings; for proceedings involving interested third parties such as local authorities in child care cases, NOMS, Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority; or miscellaneous requests for the purpose of local crime prevention initiatives etc.

updated 26 February 2020 link for Sentencing Councils Totality definitive guidelines

These include:

Updated: October 2019; 1 November 2024

Updated: 05 November 2019; 15 October 2024

Rewritten: 15 March 2023

The basic principle is that it is for the prosecution, not the court, to decide whether a prosecution should be commenced and, if commenced, whether it should continue.