Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Code for Crown Prosecutors definition

What does Code for Crown Prosecutors mean? The code for Crown Prosecutors is the Crown Prosecution Service’s framework for making charging and prosecution decisions in England and Wales. It explains how prosecutors assess evidential sufficiency and public interest, and how cases are kept under continuing review from referral to disposal. Issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions under section 10 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, the Code sets out the Full Code Test (evidential and public-interest stages) and the Threshold Test (used where immediate charging is needed but further evidence is anticipated). It also outlines core duties of fairness, independence and objectivity, and informs choices...

Adult out-of-court disposals (England and Wales): simple and conditional cautions, foreign national conditions, fixed penalty notices, and the new diversionary/community cautions (PCSCA 2022)

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Practice notes

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The Code for Crown Prosecutors explains that, when deciding whether to prosecute, alternatives should be weighed up. For adult offenders, the main alternatives are:

cautions
fixed Penalty notices

Simple cautions

There are two forms of caution: the simple caution and the Conditional caution. Both are issued by the police. Some other regulators are also able to give simple cautions, including local authorities, the Health and Safety Executive, and the Environment Agency.

Simple cautions are aimed at low-level, first-time offending. Their use is controlled by section 17 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (CJCA 2015), which applies to all offences, no matter when they occurred. The Ministry of Justice has released updated guidance on how simple cautions should be applied (see MOJ: Simple cautions for adult offenders). Practitioners should also have regard to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Guidance on Charging.

The CJCA 2015 narrows the situations in which simple cautions can be given. As the seriousness of the offence increases, so do the restrictions, and those restrictions also apply where there is repeat offending...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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