Independent Prosecution Service - A View From the Shires (From Police - Powers, Procedures and Proprieties, P 230-236, 1986, John Benyon and Colin Bourn, eds. - See NCJ-104641) eds. - See NCJ-104641)

• NCJ Number: 104660
• Author(s): C Grenyer
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Pergamon Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The Association of County Councils, representing the nonmetropolitan county councils in England and Wales, states its reservations about the integrated national independent prosecution service authorized under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985.

Abstract

The association supports a prosecution service independent of the police but opposes a nationally centralized organizational structure for such a service, the structure established in the act. The association favors a system whereby Crown Prosecutors would be appointed and paid by county councils, holding office rather than being employed, but could be dismissed only by the national Director of Public Prosecutions. The national system was selected to give priority to consistency and uniformity in prosecutions nationwide. This requires national guidelines that are subject to political manipulation. The administration of justice should be more responsive to local priorities than the priorities of centralized political power. Advocates of the national system argue that it is the most efficient of the organizational alternatives, but a detailed cost analysis indicates that the expected cost reductions under the new system can only be achieved by reducing the quality of prosecution services. Also, the national system of prosecution services is a step toward a national police force. 5 notes.