Appendix. NOTE. The Treasury Solicitor is to be the Director of Public Prosecutions (47 & 48 Vict. c. 58, s. 1), post. 3 & 4. [Repealed by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 58, post.] 5. Delivery of recognizances, inquisitions, etc., to director of public prosecutions.] Where the director of public prosecutions gives notice to any justice or coroner that he has instituted, or undertaken, or is carrying on any criminal proceeding, such justice and coroner shall at the time and in the manner prescribed by the regulations under this Act, or directed in any special case by an order of the Attorney-General, transmit to the said director every recognizance, information, certificate, inquisition, deposition, document, and thing which is connected with the said proceeding, and which the justice or coroner is required by law to deliver to the proper officer of the court in which the trial is to be had, and the said director shall, subject to the regulations under this Act, cause the same to be delivered to the said proper officer of the court, and shall be under the same obligation, on the same payment, to deliver to an applicant copies thereof as the said justice, coroner, or officer. It shall be the duty of every clerk to a justice or to a police court, to transmit, in accordance with the regulations under this Act, to the director of public prosecutions, a copy of the information and of all depositions and other documents relating to any case in which a prosecution for an offence instituted before such justice or court is withdrawn or is not proceeded with within a reasonable time. A failure on the part of any justice or coroner to comply with this section shall be deemed to be a failure to comply with the said requirement to deliver to the proper officer of the court, and any clerk to a justice or to a police court failing to comply with this section shall be liable to the same penalty to which a justice or coroner is liable for such failure as aforesaid. 6. If director abandon prosecution, aggrieved parties may proceed.] Where any criminal proceeding has been instituted or undertaken by the director of public prosecutions, any person having the right to institute and carry on such proceedings may, if he have good cause for so doing, show, by affidavit to any judge of the High Court, that such director of public prosecutions has abandoned such proceedings, or has neglected duly to carry on the same, and such judge, after hearing such director of public prosecutions, may give such directions as to the mode in which such proceedings shall be continued by such person so applying, or by the said director of public prosecutions, as to such judge shall appear right. 7. Saving as to private prosecutors, and binding over persons to prosecute.] Nothing in this Act shall interfere with the right of any person to institute, undertake, or carry on any criminal proceeding. Where any criminal proceeding is instituted, undertaken, or Appendix. carried on by the director of public prosecutions, such director shall not be bound over to prosecute or conduct such proceeding, or required to give security for costs, and it shall not be necessary to bind over any person to prosecute or conduct such proceeding, and if any person is so bound over, or has given security for costs, he shall, upon the director of public prosecutions undertaking the case, be released from such obligation, and the security shall be deemed to have been cancelled, and the director of public prosecutions shall be liable to costs in lieu of such person. The prosecution of an offender by the director of public prosecutions shall, for the purpose of enabling a person to obtain a restitution of property, or obtaining, exercising, or enforcing any right, claim, or advantage whatsoever, have the same effect as if such person had been bound over to prosecute and had prosecuted the offender, subject to this proviso, that such person shall give all reasonable information and assistance to the said director in relation to the prosecution. As to the liability of the director of public prosecutions under this section, see Stubbs v. Director of Public Prosecutions, 24 Q. B. D. 577, ante, p. 455. 8. Regulations may be made, &c., and to be laid before Parliament.] The Attorney-General, with the approval of the Lord Chancellor and a Secretary of State, may from time to time make, and when made rescind, vary, and add to, regulations for carrying into effect this Act. The draft of all such regulations proposed to be approved as aforesaid shall be laid before both houses of parliament and shall not be finally approved as aforesaid until the draft has lain before each house of parliament for not less than forty days upon which such house has sat. For the regulations so made, see post, p. 469. 9. Interpretation.] In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, the following terms have the meanings hereinafter respectively assigned to them; that is to say, The term "person " includes a body of persons corporate or unincorporate : The term "attorney-general" means her Majesty's attorneygeneral for England, and her Majesty's solicitor-general for England whenever such solicitor-general can by reason of a vacancy in the office of attorney-general or otherwise act as the attorney-general. 10. [Repealed by 57 & 58 Vict. c. 56 (S. L. R.).] Appendix. THE PROSECUTION OF OFFENCES ACT, 1884. An Act for Amending the Prosecution of Offences Act, 1879. 1. Short title.] This Act may be cited as the Prosecution of Offences Act, 1884 and this Act and the principal Act may be together cited as the Prosecution of Offences Acts, 1879 and 1884. 2. Solicitor of the Treasury to be director of public prosecutions.] . the person holding the office of solicitor for the affairs of her Majesty's Treasury shall be director of public prosecutions, and perform the duties and have the powers of such director. Section three of the Treasury Solicitor Act, 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. 18), shall extend to authorise any assistant solicitor for the affairs of her Majesty's Treasury to act on behalf of the said solicitor in his capacity of director of public prosecutions. 3. Returns as to crimes by chief officer of police.] The chief officer of every police district in England shall, from time to time, give to the director of public prosecutions information with respect to indictable offences alleged to have been committed within the district of such chief officer, and to the dealing with those offences, and the said information shall contain such particulars and be in such form as may be for the time being required by regulations under the principal Act. 4. Definitions of "police district" and "chief officer of police."] The expression "police district means (1) The City of London and the liberties thereof; and (2) The metropolitan police district; and (3) Any county or riding, parts, division, or liberty of a county or borough, town, or place maintaining a separate police force : The expression " chief officer of police" means— (1) In the City of London the commissioner of police of the city; and (2) In the metropolitan police district the commissioner or any assistant commissioner of the police of the metropolis or any district superintendent of the metropolitan police force; and (3) Elsewhere the chief constable, or head constable, or other officer, by whatever name called, having the chief command of the police in a police district as defined by this Act. 5. [Repealed by 61 d 62 Vict. c. 22 (S. L. R.).] REGULATIONS under the Prosecution of Offences Acts, 1879 and Regulations respecting Justices, Coroners, Clerks to Justices, and Chief (1) The chief officer of every police district within the meaning of the Prosecution of Offences Act, 1884, shall give to the director of public prosecutions information (a) With respect to every offence punishable by death; and (i) If the offence appears to the chief officer of police (ii) If the prosecution of the offence is abandoned or (iii) If otherwise it appears to the chief officer of police (iv) If the information is required by a written requisi- (2) The information which the chief officer of a police district is to give in pursuance of the foregoing regulation to the director of public prosecutions shall, in the case of an offence punishable by death, be information (a) Of the fact of the commission of the offence; (b) Of the arrest of any person in respect of the offence; (c) Of all proceedings taken before a coroner or a justice, or by the police with reference to the offence or to the prosecution of the alleged offender; and (d) of any circumstances in connection with the offence or the prosecution thereof which the director by notice in writing from time to time requires ; And such information shall be given as soon as practicable after the commission, arrest, or proceeding of which information happens or is taken, or in the case of a requisition by the director within the time named in the requisition. (3) The information which the chief officer of a police district is to give in pursuance of the foregoing regulation to the director of public prosecutions shall, in the case of an indictable offence not punishable by death, be information (a) Of the nature of the offence, and the arrest of any person charged therewith, and of the proceedings taken with reference to the offence or to the prosecution of the alleged offender; and Appendix. Appendix. (b) Of all circumstances which lead the chief officer to think that the case is one which requires the aid of the director of public prosecutions, or which it is the duty of such director to prosecute; and (c) Of any circumstances in connection with the offence or the prosecution thereof which are specified in a written requisition from the director; And such information shall be given (whether before or after the committal of a person on a charge for the offence) as soon as it appears to the chief officer of a police district that it is desirable that the director of public prosecutions should intervene, or at any earlier date at which the information is required by a written requisition from such director to be given. (4) The information given by the chief officer of a police district shall be given in the form from time to time prescribed by one of her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State and the AttorneyGeneral. (5) Every justice of the peace or coroner to whom a notice has been given under section 5 of the Prosecution of Offences Act, 1879, shall, within three days after the receipt by him of such notice, transmit either by post in a registered letter, or, if that is not practicable, by railway or by messenger, to the director of public prosecutions, all documents and things which he is by the said section required to transmit; and the director of public prosecutions shall cause all such documents and things to be delivered or sent by post, in a registered letter, to the proper officer of the court in which the trial is to be had a reasonable time before such trial. (6) Where a prosecution for an offence instituted before any justice or police court is withdrawn, or is not proceeded with within a reasonable time, it shall be the duty of the clerk to such justice or police court to deliver or send by post to the director of public prosecutions a letter stating the circumstances of the case, and inquiring whether such director desires to have a copy of the information and of all depositions and other documents relating to the case transmitted to him, and if the director of public prosecutions so requires it, shall deliver or send by post, in a registered letter, to the director, all the said documents, or such of them, as the director requires. January 25th, 1886. RICHARD E. WEBSTER. HUGH C. E. CHILDERS, |