The Public Prosecution Service is based across four locations, with offices in Belfast, Londonderry, Newry and a satellite office in Omagh.
There are seven legal sections within the PPS, each headed by an Assistant Director who has overall responsibility for decision-making on investigation files and for the conduct of prosecutions in their section.
Corporate Services, led by the Senior Assistant Director for Resources and Change, provides a range of professional, technical and other support services.
Belfast Region
The Belfast Region considers files sent to the PPS by the PSNI, and by agencies such as the Harbour Police, regarding crimes committed in greater Belfast.
There are around 30 Public Prosecutors (including 10 Senior Public Prosecutors) in the region who deal with all offence types, except those specialised cases that are allocated to the Serious Crime Unit, Fraud and Departmental, Central Casework or High Court and International sections.
Eilis McGrath, Assistant Director, heads the Belfast Region that covers courts in Belfast (Laganside) and includes a large administrative support team.
Southern and Eastern Region
Southern and Eastern Region is led by Assistant Director Roger Davison and with staff based in Newry Chambers and Belfast Chambers.
Like Belfast Region, prosecutors consider files sent to the PPS by the PSNI and other agencies, covering all offence types excluding those cases dealt with by specialised legal teams. Courts covered by prosecutors in this region are Newry, Craigavon, Armagh (sitting in Newry), Banbridge (sitting in Newry), Lisburn, Newtownards and Downpatrick.
There are 30 Public Prosecutors (including around 8 Senior Public Prosecutors) in this region as well as a large administrative support team. The region covers a significant geographic area from North Down and Ards to Newry, Armagh and Craigavon.
Northern and Western Region
Prosecutors in Northern and Western Region consider all offence types except those specialised cases dealt with by the Serious Crime Unit, Central Casework, Fraud and Departmental or High Court and International sections. The Northern and Western Region covers a wide geographic area including all of counties Fermanagh and Londonderry, and large swathes of Antrim and Tyrone.
The Assistant Director with responsibility for the region is Aubrey Murray. Aubrey is in charge of a team of around 36 Public Prosecutors (including 11 Senior Public Prosecutors), who are based in Belfast Chambers, Foyle Chambers and Newry Chambers.
The team also includes a large number of support staff who are based in the Belfast, Foyle or Newry offices or the satellite premises in Omagh.
Prosecutors in the region cover Courts in Limavady, Coleraine, Londonderry, Strabane, Dungannon, Enniskillen, Magherafelt, Omagh, Antrim and Ballymena.
Serious Crime Unit
The Serious Crime Unit (SCU) deals with a range of the most serious offences including murder, rape and other serious sexual offences, human trafficking, prostitution and related offences. The Unit is led by Assistant Director Catherine Kierans and has a dedicated team of nine Senior Public Prosecutors, four Public Prosecutors and three Higher Court Advocates, based in Belfast Chambers.
The Unit works mostly on the particularly complex casework associated with murder and serious sexual crimes, enabling the sharing of best practice and consistency of approach across the team.
A dedicated Gateway Team within the SCU assesses the quality of the files received from PSNI and provides guidance and support to PSNI investigating officers. This collaborative approach between PPS and PSNI is designed to provide a more efficient service for victims of serious crime.
SCU administrative support is provided by a dedicated SCU admin team as well as from the Casework and Court Support teams from the Belfast and Eastern Region team.
A Detective Sergeant from the PSNI is the dedicated PSNI/ PPS Liaison Officer for the Unit.
Central Casework
The Central Casework section considers some of the most high-profile and complex cases in Northern Ireland. A dedicated team of eight Senior Public Prosecutors work alongside administrative staff in a centralised function at Belfast Chambers, led by Assistant Director Martin Hardy.
Among the cases considered by Central Casework include all current terrorist cases, legacy cases relating to offences committed during the Troubles, gross negligence manslaughter, corruption, misfeasance in public office, serious complaints against police and serious organised crime cases. These complex case types may involve consideration of novel points of law where there may be little legal precedent.
High Court and International
The High Court and International section deals with a diverse range of complex judicial and international legal matters. The section is based at Belfast Chambers and is headed by Assistant Director Lynne Carlin. Lynne is in charge of a team of eight prosecutors and additional support staff.
High Court and International has responsibility for High Court bail applications, restraint and confiscation orders, extradition, international Letters of Request, judicial reviews, civil cases, unduly lenient sentences, appeals to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, and cases referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Fraud and Departmental
The Fraud and Departmental section of the PPS deals with serious and complex fraud files submitted by the police and the National Crime Agency, as well as files from Northern Ireland government departments and their agencies including the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive and HM Revenue and Customs.
In addition to fraud cases the section considers files such as pollution, benefit fraud, agriculture-related offences and health and safety offences, including workplace fatalities. The section is currently headed by Acting Assistant Director Ruaidhri McAuley, who leads a team of seven prosecutors and support staff. Fraud and Departmental is based in our Headquarters in Belfast Chambers.
Corporate Services
Corporate Services, led by Senior Assistant Director Peter Luney, provides the PPS with a variety of professional, technical and other support services. Comprising around 110 staff, Corporate Services includes the Victim and Witness Care Unit, Information and Communications Technology, the Resource Management Team, Finance and Fees, the Modernisation Team, the Communications Unit, Business Assurance and Property Management.
The Policy and Information Unit also sits within Corporate Services. The Unit is responsible for a range of functions, including: the development of legal policy and guidance; legal quality assurance; the co-ordination of complaints and requests for review; liaison with external agencies, such as Criminal Justice Inspection; the development of the Service’s equality and governance frameworks; and the management of requests under the Freedom of Information Act/ Data Protection Act.
The Unit comprises a mix of legal and other specialists and is headed by Dr Richard Scullion. The complement includes a number of statisticians seconded from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency who are responsible for the production of statistical publications in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
In August 2019, the Strategic Improvement Team was also established under the Corporate Services umbrella. The team has responsibility for the PPS’s input to a number of ongoing and future CJSNI ‘Speeding up Justice’ initiatives, including committal reform.