Dear Sir or Madam,

Please could you provide me with information about how CPS
officials make decisions whether or not to prosecute. Please could
you also include any guidelines that you follow and where those
guidelines come from?

Yours faithfully,

N.Smith

N Smith

[email address]

Our ref: 1520

Dear Sir / Madam

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act request which was received
on the 11 November 2008. In that request, you asked for information
about how Crown Prosecution Service officials make decisions whether or
not to prosecute.

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 creates a statutory
right of access to information held by public authorities, i.e. the
Crown Prosecution Service. This right is to be informed whether the
information requested is held by the public authority or not, and if the
information exists, for it to be communicated. A public authority must
reply to such a request promptly and in any event, not later than twenty
working days after receipt.

The individual's right to information is not unqualified and subject to
a number of exceptions and exemptions that are contained within the Act.
The majority of these exemptions are qualified, that is to say the
decision whether to confirm or deny the information's existence or to
disclose the requested material, will be subject to a public interest.

The Freedom of Information Act is a public disclosure regime, not a
private regime. Any information disclosed under it is thereafter deemed
to be in the public domain, and therefore freely available to the
general public.

Please click on the link below which will take you to the Code for Crown
Prosecutors, the guidance sets out the general principles Crown
Prosecutors should follow when they make decisions whether or not to
prosecute a case.

http://www.cps.gov.uk/victims_witnesses/...

If you are unhappy with the decisions made in relation to your request
from the Crown Prosecution Service you may ask for an internal review
within two calendar months of the date of this letter. If you wish to
request an internal review, please contact the Freedom of Information
Unit (Appeals), 50 Ludgate Hill, London, EC4M 7EX.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours faithfully

Ms Begum

Information Management Unit

Crown Prosecution Service

19 November 2008

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