A Legal Turning Point

The Post Office Horizon IT scandal has had far-reaching consequences, not only for the hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongfully convicted, but also for the broader question of how private prosecutions are conducted in England and Wales. Acting as both investigator and prosecutor, the Post Office brought forward criminal charges using unreliable evidence, with minimal oversight. The result was, as the government states in its 2025 consultation, “one of the worst miscarriages of justice in our country’s legal history.”

This scandal is a central reason behind the Ministry of Justice’s recent consultation on the Oversight and Regulation of Private Prosecutors in the Criminal Justice System, published on 6 March 2025. The document explores whether private prosecutors such as companies, local authorities, and regulatory bodies should be subject to new rules, inspections, and transparency requirements. While no decisions have yet been made, the consultation clearly signals the possibility of future statutory regulation.

Why the Government Is Consulting Now

According to the consultation, there is currently no “coordinated oversight or scrutiny” of the steps private prosecutors must take before initiating a prosecution, nor are there “quality assurance processes to ensure that private prosecutors are taking proper account of whether a prosecution is in the public interest.”

The Post Office Horizon Inquiry revealed how systemic issues, such as the lack of separation between investigation and prosecution and the absence of evidential testing contributed to wrongful convictions. The consultation asks whether earlier intervention, through a regulatory regime could have prevented the injustice.

A similar concern arose in 2024 when approximately 60,000 fare evasion cases, brought by train operating companies under the Single Justice Procedure (SJP), were ruled unlawful. These high-profile failures have pushed the government to consider reforms aimed at protecting the integrity of the criminal justice system.

What the Consultation Proposes

The consultation explores three main areas for reform, all of which could shape the future of private prosecutions in England and Wales.

1. Improving Standards and Accountability

The consultation identifies that, unlike the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), private prosecutors are not bound by a statutory code or inspected by an independent body. The government is therefore seeking views on:

• Introducing a mandatory code of practice for private prosecutors to ensure all prosecutions are based on sufficient evidence and are in the public interest;
• Creating a system of inspection for private prosecutors, similar to that which applies to public agencies;
• Establishing accreditation requirements, possibly making it a prerequisite for certain prosecutorial powers or for recovering costs from public funds;
• Setting out sanctions or consequences where standards are not met, including the possibility of requiring Attorney General or Director of Public Prosecutions consent before initiating further cases.

The government notes that while some private prosecutors voluntarily follow the Code for Crown Prosecutors or the Private Prosecutors’ Association’s code, these are non-binding and inconsistently applied.

2. Safeguards in the Single Justice Procedure

The SJP enables certain low-level, non-imprisonable offences to be dealt with by a single magistrate based on written evidence, often without a court hearing. The consultation highlights concern that defendants can be prosecuted “where the mitigation they put forward demonstrates that it was not in the public interest for them to have been prosecuted.”

As a result, the government is considering:

• Requiring prosecutors to engage with defendants before issuing an SJP notice, to understand vulnerabilities or mitigating circumstances;
• Allowing (or requiring) review of mitigation evidence prior to the magistrate’s decision;
• Introducing a duty to reassess public interest after reviewing this material.

The aim is to preserve the efficiency of the SJP without compromising fairness or due process.

3. Improving Transparency

A key issue in the Horizon scandal was that postmasters were unaware that others were experiencing the same issues, which delayed scrutiny. The consultation observes that greater transparency “could have resulted in these miscarriages of justice being identified more quickly, and even some wrongful prosecutions being prevented.”

To increase accountability, the government is seeking views on:

• Creating a public register of private prosecutors, including data on volumes of prosecutions and offence types;
• Requiring publication of outcome data, such as conviction rates and guilty pleas;
• Encouraging or mandating internal performance reviews, audits, or reporting on compliance with prosecutorial standards.

This transparency, the consultation suggests, could enable the public and Parliament to detect emerging issues before they escalate.

Next Steps

The consultation closed on 8 May 2025, and a government response is expected later this year. It remains to be seen which proposals, if any, will be implemented, and in what form. However, the Ministry of Justice makes it clear that “regulation of private prosecutors is essential to prevent miscarriages of justice and enhance public confidence in the criminal justice system.”

For organisations that bring private prosecutions, or those advising them, now is the time to anticipate the direction of reform. The possibility of mandatory codes, inspections, and registration requirements suggests that voluntary best practice may soon become legal obligation.

This blog is based on the Ministry of Justice consultation paper, “Oversight and Regulation of Private Prosecutors in the Criminal Justice System” (published 6 March 2025). The full document is available at GOV.UK.