CPS Annual Report 2005-2006 - PDF - Crown Prosecution Service

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ANNEX D: DESIGNATED CASEWORKERS GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS’
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS TO CROWN
PROSECUTION SERVICE DESIGNATED
CASEWORKERS, PURSUANT TO SECTION
7A(3) AND (4) OF THE PROSECUTION
OF OFFENCES ACT 1985 (‘THE ACT’)
1. Preamble
1.1 These instructions will take effect on 2 January 2006, and will
apply to all CPS employees designated by the Director in
accordance with section 7A(1) of the Act. Any such
employee will be referred to in these instructions as a
Designated Caseworker [‘DCW’].
1.2 These instructions apply whether the DCW has been so
designated prior to the date specified in paragraph 1.1, upon
that date, or subsequently.
1.3 Upon these instructions taking effect in accordance with
paragraphs 1.1 and 1.2, all previous instructions issued to
DCWs pursuant to section 7A(3) and (4) of the Act, and set
out in the appropriate Annex of the Director’s annual report
to the Attorney General in accordance with section 7A(7)(c)
of the Act, will cease to have effect.
1.4 The Director may from time to time issue guidance to CPS
Areas as to how to approach implementation of these
instructions, and dealing with related matters including
procedures for supervision of DCWs and training
requirements relevant to certain duties.
2. Powers and Rights of Audience
2.1 All DCWs will exercise the powers and rights of audience of
a Crown Prosecutor in the conduct of criminal proceedings in
magistrates’ courts, including those concerning a defendant’s
application for bail, or application in relation to bail (including
proceedings for breach of bail), whether or not the matter is
contested and whether or not the defendant is an adult or
youth, except to the extent that the proceedings are any of
the excluded proceedings listed in paragraph 2.4 below.
2.2 All DCWs will exercise the powers of a Crown Prosecutor
in the conduct of criminal proceedings in magistrates courts,
including the power to review such proceedings in
accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and to
determine such proceedings, except to the extent that the
proceedings are any of the excluded proceedings listed in
paragraph 2.4 below.
2.3 The powers of a DCW to review and determine
proceedings are further subject to Section 3 below.
2.4 For the purpose of these instructions, excluded proceedings
are proceedings:
• for an offence triable only at the Crown Court;
• for an either-way offence in relation to which the
defendant has, at a previous hearing, elected to be tried
at the Crown Court;
• for an either-way offence in relation to which the
magistrates have decided, at a previous hearing, that
Crown Court trial would be more suitable;
• for an offence in relation to which a notice of transfer
has been given under section 4 of the Criminal Justice
Act 1987 or section 53 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991;
• that take the form of a criminal trial, beginning with the
opening of the prosecution case after the entry of a
plea of not guilty by the defendant or the defendant’s
representative and ending with the conviction or
acquittal of the defendant;
• that take the form of a Newton Hearing; or
• that take the form of a ‘special reasons’ hearing, namely
where the offence carries obligatory disqualification and
the defendant is calling evidence in support of ‘special
reasons’ as to why he or she should not be disqualified
from driving.
2.5 A DCW may exercise the powers and rights of audience of
a Crown Prosecutor in order to prove a summary matter in
the defendant’s absence under section 12 of the Magistrates’
Court Act 1980, if and only if there has been no response to
the summons and the court proceeds to hear the case in
the absence of the accused.
3. Powers to Review and Determine Proceedings
3.1 The fundamental principle is that DCWs shall only review
magistrates’ courts cases which are straightforward and
which involve no difficult technical issue, or other
complication of fact or law.
3.2 Consistent with that basic principle, DCWs shall only review
summary or either way offences where:
• the defendant is an adult; and
• the matter is summary-only or considered to be suitable
for summary disposal; and
• a guilty plea is reasonably expected; or
• (if otherwise) the offence is a minor road traffic offence,
provided that the defendant is not a youth.