DPP: No immediate plans to extend ‘no prosecutions’ explanations

The Director of Public Prosecutions has no immediate plans to extend the current system to explain decisions not to prosecute.

In 2008, the DPP’s office adopted a new policy of giving victims’ families reasons for decisions not to prosecute in fatal cases. Since then, the office has dealt with 41 requests for reasons, the DPP’s annual report shows, including eight last year.

The expansion of the project to other types of cases had been widely expected since late last year when the EU adopted a directive that gives crime victims the right to receive information on any decision not to prosecute a suspect in relation to a variety of crimes. The directive must be transposed into Irish law by 2015.