ABSTRACT
Until 1986, England was one of only a few countries that allowed the police to prosecute rather than hand over this task to state agency such as the office of the district attorney in the United States, or the procurator fiscal in Scotland. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was established by the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985. The police are no longer in a client–lawyer relationship with the prosecutor, able to give instructions about how to proceed. The CPS in practice exercises no supervisory role over the police investigation of cases; it simply acts on the file presented after the investigation by the police. In the criminal process, the first stage at which bail is usually raised as an issue is on arrest or at the police station. Following an arrest and being charged with an offence, the police have the option to remand the person in custody or grant them police bail prior to their first appearance in court.
