Prosecution Appeals

When the prosecution can appeal against a conviction, sentence or legal ruling

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“the opportunities available to the prosecution to appeal are considerably more limited than those available to the defence, who can seek to appeal against conviction and sentence, as of right from the magistrates’ court or with permission from the Crown Court.”

On this page for members…

Prosecution Appeals against Conviction
Prosecution Appeals against Sentence
Prosecution Appeals against Legal Rulings
Attorney-General’s Reference on a Point of Law
Prosecution Appeal against a Terminating Ruling
Appeal by way of Case Stated
Other Prosecution Appeals

When can the prosecution appeal?

This page covers the various instances when the prosecution are entitled to appeal against a conviction, sentence or legal ruling.

It is worth bearing in mind that the opportunities available to the prosecution to appeal are considerably more limited than those available to the defence, who can seek to appeal against conviction and sentence, as of right from the magistrates’ court or with permission from the Crown Court.

Convictions

In most cases, once you have been found not guilty of an offence, that is the end of it, and the prosecution are not entitled to seek to appeal against that conviction in the way that a defendant can, except in the limited circumstances set out on this page below.

These include where there is new and compelling evidence in cases involving serious offences, or where a jury’s verdict has been ‘tainted’ by jury or witness tampering, all of which is covered on the Double Jeopardy page.

Sentences

Similarly, in the vast majority of cases, once you have been sentenced, the prosecution are not entitled to appeal against that sentence, except where the sentence is within a relatively small category of offences which can be overturned by the Court of Appeal as being ‘unduly lenient’. Read more below.

Legal rulings

There are further situations where the prosecution can, following an acquittal, seek to clarify a point of law by appealing to the Court of Appeal (an Attorney-General’s reference), but whatever the outcome, it will not affect the defendant’s not guilty verdict.

Contrast this with the situation where the prosecution can seek to appeal against what is commonly known as a ‘terminating ruling’ by a Crown Court Judge (i.e. a legal ruling which usually has the effect of bringing the case to an end, such as the judge agreeing with a defence submission of no case to answer) where the Court of Appeal can set that ruling aside (sometimes very quickly) and the case will continue.

And in the magistrates’ court there are also situations where the prosecution can appeal against a legal ruling (by what is known as an appeal by way of case stated) which can also result in a defendant having to face trial all over again. Read on for more.