View source for Crown Prosecution Service

[[File:Crown_Prosecution_Service_logo.svg|thumb|Crown Prosecution Service logo.]]

The [[Crown Prosecution Service]] (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal advice to the police and other investigative agencies during the course of criminal investigations, to decide whether a suspect should face criminal charges following an investigation, and to conduct prosecutions both in the magistrates' courts and the Crown Court.

The Attorney General for England and Wales superintends the CPS's work and answers for it in Parliament, although the Attorney General has no influence over the conduct of prosecutions, except when national security is an issue or for a small number of offences that require the Attorney General's permission to prosecute.

The CPS was headed by [[Alison Saunders]] from November 2013 – November 2018.

In 2015 the CPS published a Violence against Women and Girls Crime Report.  Data on violence against men and boys were included in the report but implied to be violence against women and girls.  This results in the level of violence against women and girls being higher than it really is.<ref>http://empathygap.uk/?p=551</ref><ref>https://archive.is/wip/yQUIm</ref>

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== References ==