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Posted: 6th March 2013

RSPCA could hire lawyer to review prosecutions
Attorney General suggests a lawyer could review charity's policies

In a letter to the head of the RSPCA, Attorney General Dominic Grieve has suggested the charity could hire an "experienced criminal barrister" to review its controversial prosecution policy.

After the charity recently came under fire for bringing a £326,000 private prosecution against the Heythrop Hunt, it was suggested in Parliament that Mr Grieve should ask the Crown Prosecution Service's Inspectorate to review the charity's prosecution policy. In his letter to Gavin Grant however, Mr Grieve reportedly said he did not think the CPS Inspectorate should investigate the RSPCA's status as private prosecutor.

He said: "Even if you conclude that an inspection would be of value, there are significant difficulties, both practical and of principle, with the proposition that HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate takes on such a role in respect of private prosecutors and I do not see that I would be able to agree to it."

Instead he suggested that the RSPCA could appoint an independent lawyer to review its policies. Mr Grieve added: "Given the RSPCA’s status as a private prosecutor it would seem more appropriate for such a review to be carried out by an independent person appointed by the RSPCA, such as an experienced criminal barrister."

A spokesman for the Attorney General said recently: "The Attorney is not recommending that the RSPCA review its prosecutions. There are already a number of safeguards in place that may be used to ensure individual prosecutions are fair…

"The Attorney has no statutory superintendence role upon which to base a request to Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate to carry out an inspection and it has no statutory power or function to do so."

Responding to the letter in a statement, an RSPCA spokesman said: “We are not carrying out a review of our prosecutions at this moment in time. Therefore we are not currently using an independent criminal barrister for such a task. If we do choose to conduct a review of our prosecutions, we will take the Attorney General’s comments from the letter into consideration.”



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