Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

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Key definition

Attorney General definition

What does Attorney General mean? In legal practice, the Attorney General is the government’s chief legal adviser and, in the UK, a Law officer of the Crown who represents the public interest in litigation and exercises supervisory and consent functions in criminal justice. The office is constitutional, with functions set across statute and case law rather than a single Act. In England and Wales, the Attorney General advises the Crown and UK Government, superintends the Crown Prosecution Service and Serious Fraud Office, gives consent for specified prosecutions, intervenes in contempt, charity and relator matters, and may refer unduly lenient sentences to the Court of Appeal. In...

Prosecution Decision-Making and Charge Selection: CPS Code, Full Code and Threshold Tests, DPP Charging Guidance, Consents to Prosecute, and Challenging Decisions (England)

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Practice notes

Who can prosecute criminal offences in England and how is the decision to prosecute made?

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the public prosecutor in the UK. It is overseen by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), who reports to the Attorney General (AG). Acting as prosecutor, the DPP is mandated to assume responsibility for the conduct of all criminal proceedings begun by, or in the name of, a police force, except for certain ‘specified proceedings’. Specified proceedings refers to the schedule of matters designated by the AG in the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) Order 1999, SI 1999/904 (as amended). That framework permits the police to take Enforcement action without referring a case to the CPS, allowing them to issue fixed Penalty notices or start proceedings for particular road traffic offences and other low-level offences. The DPP must also carry out a range of statutory functions contained in the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (POA 1985), although the DPP, and the CPS itself, are not the sole prosecutors...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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