Updated: 20 Nov 2023, 1 Nov 2024; 10 Nov 2025

Experts can be of great assistance to magistrates and juries in helping them to determine the issues in a case, including the guilt or innocence of an accused. Prosecutors will require the appropriate knowledge and understanding of the evidence in question to present and challenge expert evidence. The purpose of this Guidance is to assist prosecutors in identifying, understanding and challenging, where appropriate, this type of evidence.

Updated: 26 February 2021, 25 Jan 2023

This guidance explains when prosecutors may institute or reinstitute criminal proceedings after the CPS has told a suspect or defendant that there will not be a prosecution, or that the prosecution has been stopped.

updated 18 Oct 2019; 2 Sep 2024; 29 Jun 2026

Trespass is not of itself a criminal offence. However there are some offences in which trespass is an essential element and this guidance sets out the most commonly encountered examples of such offences. Prosecutors should also have regard as appropriate to the CPS legal guidance on Public Order Offences and Offences during Protests, Demonstrations and Campaigns.

Issued 17 Oct 2013, revised 26 Jul 2017, updated 22 Nov 2018, 11 Jan 2023, 14 Jan 2026; 29 Jun 2026

Updated: 28 Nov 2019; 18 Jun 2026

The CPS has published a Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy for 2017-2020 providing a framework outlining the approach taken to these crimes.

Revised: Jan 2019; 6 Feb 2026; 29 June 2026

Updated: 10 Dec 2025

Revised: Sep 2019; 26 Feb 2026

The definition of forced marriage to be used will be in line with the offence under section 121 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

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.

Updated: 2 Mar 2023; minor revision 5 Jan 2024; Revised 26 Feb 2026

This legal guidance sets out how prosecutors should apply the Code for Crown Prosecutors (the Code) when considering any offences which fall within the definition of 'Honour'-Based Abuse (HBA)