Points of Order
Debate between Andy McDonald and Robert Neill
Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I rise to seek your guidance as to the way in which Members of this House should approach correspondence with the Director of Public Prosecutions. Earlier today, we saw the release of further correspondence between the hon. Member for West Bromwich East (Mr Watson), to whom I have given notice of my intention to raise the point of order, and the DPP and previous DPP. What guidance can you give as to the propriety or otherwise of Members of the House seeking to influence the conduct of specific criminal cases by the DPP or the Crown Prosecution Service, bearing in the mind the DPP’s constitutional independence and the importance of the CPS adhering to the statutory-based code of conduct for Crown prosecutors? Is it therefore appropriate for a Member of this House to seek to ask the DPP to have a named senior Crown prosecutor removed from an investigation and from doing all other child sex abuse cases until an investigation has taken place, and to seek a review of all such work that had happened since they had been in the CPS—all on the basis of matters found by the CPS, upon investigation, not to be borne out by the evidence? Secondly, is it appropriate for Members to do that in cases where the complainant or those involved in the case are not the Member’s constituents?
