AC 2.1 Explain the requirements of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for
prosecuting suspects
In 1986, the CPS was created by the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985. The main aim of the
CPS is to determine whether a case is viable to go to court by using multiple tests. Their
duty is to ensure that a case has enough evidence to go to court, and that a case will secure
a verdict successfully. The CPS has many different responsibilities such as: advising police
on certain evidence that may be needed, completing certain tests, determining the charges
deemed appropriate for cases, being a 24 hour service, etc.
Prior to the CPS, all cases that went to court were under the control of the police, who would
investigate and prosecute crimes, which was unreliable as this could have led to biases, a
heavy workload, and more resources being wasted. Furthermore, institutional biases
amongst the police meant that some cases may have been more likely to go to court, and
this may have been due to racism, ageism, etc. Institutional biases may have also been
based on the type of crime being committed, as not every police officer may have the right
training to tackle certain crimes and may have biases, such as male officers having more
biases towards domestic abuse cases.
The CPS does certain tests to determine whether a case will go to court or not. The full code
test ensures that there is fairness and consistency within the prosecution process. The CPS
used two tests to determine whether a case is valid to go to court: the evidential test and the
public interest test. The evidential test determines whether or not the evidence is reliable and
admissible. It ensures that the evidence has solid proof of a crime, and that it could secure a
conviction. Furthermore, the CPS will need to make sure that not only that physical evidence
is reliable and admissible, but testimonial and eye witness evidence is reliable and
admissible. If the CPS does not conduct the evidential tests, then this could cause mistakes
in the courtroom, and the case could collapse due to not having the correct or reliable
evidence. If the case fails the evidential test, then the case may not go to court, however the
CPS may choose to conduct the public interest test as a second measure. The public
interest test involves the CPS considering whether or not the case would be of the interest of
the public. This involves asking questions such as: how serious the crime was, the impact on
the local community, the seriousness of the crime, etc. The CPS will also consider the impact
of the victims, as well as the offenders. If all of these tests have been passed successfully,
then the case can go to court. However, if the case does not pass either the evidential test or
the public interest test, then the threshold test will be conducted. This test can only be
considered if a suspect is a bail risk and that if not all of the evidence is available at that
time. Some questions asked during the threshold test include: is there a reasonable
suspicion the person has committed the offence, are there reasonable grounds to continue
the investigation to gather more evidence, etc.
There are some limitations however to the CPS, which include the fact that there are a
number of cases that end up not going to court, which leads to some people not receiving
the justice they deserve. Furthermore, some cases may lead to wrongful convictions, and it
may be due to the CPS’s fault (e.g not doing the tests properly) which may cause innocent
people to be wrongly convicted and for miscarriages of justice to take place.
