Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, if he will bring forward proposals to introduce a right of appeal against a charging decision of the Crown Prosecution Service on the grounds that it is unduly lenient.

Where a suspect is charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (“CPS”) with a criminal offence, there are no plans to introduce a general right of appeal relating to the offence charged on the ground that it is too lenient. There are already a number of mechanisms in place to assess the quality of prosecutors’ decision making including external reviews by Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and internal CPS processes such as Individual Quality Assessments.

Every charging decision made by the CPS must be in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors (“the Code”). Unless the Threshold Test is applied, there must be sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and it must be in the public interest to prosecute every offence charged. The Code requires that charges are selected which reflect the seriousness and extent of the offending, enable the case to be presented in a clear and simple way and give the courts adequate powers to sentence. The Code also makes it clear that review is a continuing process and that prosecutors must take account of any change in circumstances that develops as the case progresses.

Victims can currently exercise their rights under the CPS Victims’ Right to Review scheme. This scheme enables victims to request a review of a CPS decision made after 5^th June 2013 not to bring charges, to discontinue proceedings, offer no evidence or leave certain charges to “lie on file”. In those cases where it has not been possible to resolve the issue to the victim’s satisfaction at a local level, the decision is independently reviewed.